By Marlene Fritz (208/364-4010 in Boise)

ABERDEEN, Idaho–Weed scientist Pam Hutchinson, a Western field research agriculturist for American Cyanamid Co. since 1992, will join the faculty of the University of Idaho College of Agriculture on Sept. 2.

Hutchinson, appointed as assistant professor and weed scientist at the university’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center, will emphasize weed dynamics in irrigated potato cropping systems. In addition to developing basic and applied research programs, she will conduct training and outreach programs and eventually teach off-campus weed science classes.

Hutchinson earned her bachelor’s degree in agronomy at Iowa State University in 1980, her master’s degree in agronomy-weed science at South Dakota State University in 1987 and her Ph.D. in agronomy-weed science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1991.

At American Cyanamid, her responsibilities included field research and development for Idaho, Montana, Utah, eastern Oregon and eastern Washington. She contributed to development of a fungicide for potato late blight control, an imidazolinone-tolerant wheat for grassy-weed control and an herbicide for noxious weed control in non-crop areas, pasture and rangeland.

Hutchinson says she is looking forward to "working more closely with growers, getting back to some basic research and focusing on herbicide resistance and pesticide degradation."

Before beginning her graduate studies, Hutchinson was a research technician for Dow Chemical Co. in central Illinois, a field agronomist for Land O’Lakes, Inc., in southern Minnesota and a Poast sales specialist for BASF Wyandotte Corporation, also in southern Minnesota.

After Sept. 2, she can be reached at 208/397-4181 in Aberdeen.