Szendrei Receives ESA North Central Branch Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension
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EmailMSU Entomology Professor Zsofia Szendrei has received the ESA North Central Branch Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension for her work helping vegetable growers reduce pesticide use and adopt more sustainable pest‑management practices.
MSU Entomology Professor and Vegetable Entomologist Zsofia Szendrei has been honored with the Entomological Society of America’s North Central Branch Distinguished Achievement Award in Extension. The award recognizes her long-standing efforts to help vegetable growers manage insect pests in ways that reduce reliance on synthetic pesticides while keeping farms productive.
Much of Szendrei’s outreach centers on integrated pest management, or IPM, and developing tools growers can use every day. Her team works with growers and industry partners to refine scouting methods, monitoring systems, degree‑day models and threshold recommendations. They also conduct field trials that test alternatives to broad‑spectrum insecticides and share those findings through field days, extension publications and one‑on‑one conversations.
Her commitment to finding sustainable options extends beyond Michigan. Szendrei serves in the national leadership of a USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative project aimed at managing potato pests without neonicotinoids, a widely used class of insecticides. The collaboration brings researchers from across the country together to test new techniques and identify workable alternatives for growers.
“My goal is to ensure that research findings translate into tools that growers can realistically use in their day‑to‑day management decisions,” Szendrei said. “Ultimately, the goal is to equip growers with practices that support effective and economically viable pest management.”
She notes that the award reflects the collaborative nature of extension work. “The success of these programs depends on strong partnerships with growers, commodity groups and extension colleagues,” she said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with Michigan’s vegetable growers and to contribute to developing pest-management solutions that support both agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability.”
