This week’s University of Minnesota Extension Minnesota CropCast has as its guest Dr. Roger Becker, an Extension Weed Scientist in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. Roger grew up in southwest Iowa on a beef and grain farm. It was while he was attending Iowa State University (ISU) that he became interested in field research. This led him to an internship at Monsanto with a weed scientist and then to graduate school at ISU in Weed Science.

Dr. Becker came to the University of Minnesota in 1987 where his long and winding professional career began in earnest. Roger’s research and Extension activities focused on issues of great contemporary importance where professional voids occurred. For example, his earliest work was around groundwater contamination with herbicides that focused on weed management in forage crops. Later, when a colleague in the Horticulture department who supported weed control for sweetcorn producers retired, Roger took on this role as well.

Dr. Becker began closely working with MDA and DNR when purple loosestrife was put on the noxious weeds list. This weed was the thread that really connected Roger with the invasive species as well as the biocontrol, and regulatory communities. Roger has been an instrumental player in the biocontrol of invasive weed species ever since.

With Dr. Becker nearing retirement, this conversation reminds us of both the importance of Roger’s work, but also the varied and meandering route that academics sometimes take to make the largest impact for their clientele. Please join Dave and Seth for another interesting MN CropCast episode.