Andrew Hulting, Oregon State University weed management specialist with the Extension Service, is the newly named Hyslop Professor, a position he will hold for five years.

He will help train graduate students in weed management projects with a focus on grass weed species such as annual bluegrass and roughstalk bluegrass, and will train seed industry consultants on how to improve their practices in weed management.

Hulting will also work with undergraduates in weed management studies.

Andrew Hulting

The Hyslop Professorship is an "extremely important position because it allows us to target funds to issues important to the industries related to seed production," notes Hulting. "It's a great honor. I'm so thankful that the Hyslop family had the foresight to create this endowment.

"It's a rare opportunity to have this amount of time to develop important projects."

The chair was developed by the George R. Hyslop family and friends as a very large endowment with the OSU Foundation that provides funds for many activities, including the professorship in the university's Crop and Soil Science Department.

Hyslop headed the Department of Farm Crops at the Oregon Agricultural College in the early 1900's

Hulting comes to the job as the Oregon seed production industry is charting a course to enhance its success. "We've come out of a huge downturn in grass seed production," he says of the industry that borders OSU's campus with one of the largest grass seed farming regions in the world.

But the market for grass seed is beginning to "look more positive," he observes

"We've seen a lot of growth in clover seed production and in some other important seed crops," adds Hulting. "There's good demand for our products and we are starting to turn around and see a more positive outlook for all seed production."

Hulting started his new professorship on July 1.