Ben McKnight is the Extension cotton specialist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. He completed his undergraduate and MS studies in agronomy at Texas A&M University and earned a PhD in agronomy from Louisiana State University. His MS and PhD research focused on novel weed management strategies in production agriculture.
Reagan Noland is an assistant professor and Extension agronomist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in San Angelo. He coordinates an applied research and Extension program in collaboration with county Extension agents, other specialists, and industry professionals to support crop producers across west central Texas. Important crops in this region are primarily cotton and wheat but also include forage crops, cover crops, and other grain and oilseed crops. Specific research and programming efforts are focused on variety selection, irrigation scheduling, weed management, reniform nematode management, cotton root rot, and fertility. Reagan completed his academic training at Angelo State University (BS), Texas A&M University (MS), and the University of Minnesota (PhD), and he served as the grain crops Extension agronomist for the University of Georgia at Tifton prior to beginning his role in Texas in 2018.
Ken Lege is an Extension cotton specialist at Lubbock’s Texas A&M AgriLife Extension & Research Center. While his career began as a cotton specialist at Clemson University, he’s spent much of his profession developing cotton varieties with companies such as, Monsanto, Delta and Pine Land Company, Sure-grow Seed and most recently, Corteva Agriscience.
John Robinsonis a professor and Extension specialist for cotton marketing in the Agricultural Economics Department of Texas A&M University. His educational programming emphasizes risk management issues related to cotton, including cash markets, hedging, contracting, insurance, and policy issues.
Wayne Smith is Professor and Associate Department Head in Cotton Genetics at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Cotton Genetics Research duties include development of superior germplasm/cultivars which will enhance the productivity, improve the product quality, and/or decrease production costs associate with cotton production in Texas. Primary research sites in Texas are College Station, Weslaco, Corpus Christi, Thrall, and Chillicothe, as well as colleagues at Lubbock. Primary geographical areas of responsibilities are central and south Texas with secondary goals aimed at all cotton producing areas of Texas and the United States.
David Stellyis a Professor in Plant Breeding, Genetics, Molecular & Environmental Plant Sciences. He holds a joint appointment with Texas A&M University and Texas A&M AgriLife Research. He is a professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, with over 40 years of experience in breeding of diploid and polyploid crops, germplasm introgression, reproductive biology and cytology, cytogenetics, genetics, and genomics.
Carol Kelly is Adjunct Professor, Cotton Breeding at Texas A&M AgriLife Research. Kelly earned her bachelor’s degree in agronomy, master’s in crop science and doctorate in agronomy, all from Texas Tech University. She also has served as an adjunct faculty member at Texas Tech since 2015. She is a member of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and the National Association of Plant Breeders. She has served as the co-chair of the Beltwide Cotton Conference – Cotton Improvement, 2023, and chair of the Beltwide Cotton Conference – Cotton Improvement, 2024. Additionally, she is an associate editor for cotton in the Journal of Plant Registrations, and Plains chair on the National Cotton Variety Testing Committee. Kelly has participated in seven germplasm releases. The cotton breeding program typically releases germplasm, which can be described as a genetic resource or material that can be used to develop varieties. This material is released from their public breeding program to be further developed into a variety for general use by producers.
Jennifer Chagoya is a Technician III in Plant Pathology & Microbiology at Texas A&M AgriLife Research. Her focus area is molecular detection and quantification of Fusarium wilt pathogens in cotton.
Terry Wheeler graduated with an MS from Texas A&M University in plant pathology and then a PhD from North Carolina State University in plant pathology. Both degrees were obtained with a specialization in plant nematology; work was conducted with root-knot nematode species on tobacco and peanut. Dr. Wheeler then worked as a research associate at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Wooster on potato early dying (a disease complex involving Verticillium wilt and lesion nematode) and then at Ohio State University on the soybean cyst nematode. In 1994, Dr. Wheeler moved to Lubbock, Texas, to work on cotton and peanut diseases in the southern High Plains of Texas for the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (later renamed Texas A&M AgriLife Research). Nematodes are one of the most important and consistent issues facing cotton production in this region, and Dr. Wheeler has worked extensively in nematode management (chemical, germplasm, and crop rotation) with both the root-knot and the reniform nematodes.
Marina Rondon is an assistant professor at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Research Center at Lubbock. Her areas of specialization are nematodes and plant pathology, and she applies this expertise to protect and improve production of cotton, peanuts, and other important regional crops. Rondon’s interest in plant pathology developed in her home country of Brazil, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agronomy. She came to the United States to pursue a doctoral degree in plant pathology from Auburn University, which she completed in 2020.
Tom Isakeit is a professor and Extension plant pathologist at Texas A&M University in College Station. His responsibility is conducting Extension programs managing field crop diseases. With corn, he has done aflatoxin research in conjunction with Texas A&M corn breeders since 1999. More recently, he has initiated field studies evaluating commercially available of atoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus for managing aflatoxin. He has been with Texas A&M University since 1993. He obtained his PhD and MSc degrees in plant pathology at Michigan State University. He also obtained postdoctoral experience at the University of California–Berkeley and the University of Arizona.
Noureddine Abidi is FBRI Managing Director at Fiber & Biopolymer Research Institute. Dr. Noureddine Abidi joined the FBRI in September 1999 as a Research Associate working in chemical finishes and textile chemistry. He earned his bachelor degree in chemistry and master degree in polymer chemistry. He earned advanced degree in Polymers, Interfaces and Amorphous State and Ph.D. in Theoretical, Physical and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Montpellier II in Montpellier, France and then did two postdoctoral studies at the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Condensed Matter at the University of Montpellier II and at the Material and Membrane Processes Laboratory, National College of Chemical Engineering of Montpellier. In September 2000, Dr. Abidi was promoted to Head of Finishes/Chemical Research. Dr. Abidi also holds a joint appointment as Professor for the Department of Plant and Soil Science. He was appointed as the Managing Director for the Fiber & Biopolymer Research Institute on January 1, 2017.
Peter Dotray is a weed scientist with a joint appointment at Texas Tech University, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, and Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Lubbock. Dr. Dotray teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in weed science at Texas Tech University, serves as an Extension weed specialist in the Texas Southern High Plains (where over 3 million acres of cotton is grown), and conducts research to help develop effective and sustainable weed management systems in crops grown in the region.
