MSU College of Agriculture

Time for another 🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 Bobcats!

The College of Ag is home to more than 120 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique portfolio, and we want to share them with you! Today, we meet Dr. Tyler Nygaard of the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology. 🧬🔬🧪

Dr. Nygaard is an assistant research professor with a focus on microbiology and immunology. He studies Staphylococcus aureus pathogenesis with a focus on interactions with human immune cells. He also currently teaches Medical Bacteriology and Parasitology. When not performing research or teaching at MSU, you can find him busy raising his son, walking his dog, skiing, climbing, fly-fishing, or backpacking. 🌄🐾🥾⛷

Welcome back to 🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 !

The College of Ag is home to more than 120 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique portfolio, and we want to share them with you! Today, we meet Professor Andreas Fischer in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology. Dr. Fischer had this to say about his work:

I am studying plant senescence processes. The visual symptom of senescence is color change (from green to yellow, orange, or even red), but the important part is less visible: Plants retrieve most of the nutrients (including N, P, K and more) from senescing organs and reallocate them; in annual crops including wheat and barley, most of the ‘retrieved’ nutrients end up in seeds. Senescence therefore influences plant fertilizer needs and controls seed/grain composition. Perhaps surprisingly, the process is still very incompletely understood! 🌱🌾

🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 is back
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The College of Ag is home to more than 120 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique portfolio, and we want to share them with you! Today we drop in on the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology to meet associate professor and barley breeder Dr. Jamie Sherman. 🌾

Dr. Sherman is the head of the barley breeding program and a plant geneticist who developed MSU's malting, distilling and brewing programs. Her great joys are building better barley for Montana Growers and end users that support more stable and sustainable production, understanding the genetics behind barley improvement, and training the next generation of agricultural researchers.

She has released 5 new barley varieties with improved malt quality, as well as feed and forage production. She is currently developing a new undergraduate course called Introduction into the Science of Malting and Brewing!

It's time for another 🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 !

The College of Ag is home to more than 120 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique portfolio, and we want to share them with you! Today, we head to the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology. 🧬

Dr. Frank Stewart is a professor in MCB and is a marine biologist studying how microorganisms shape ocean ecosystems. He also studies related processes in Montana's freshwater, exploring microbial contributions to chemical balance and animal health. He teaches General Microbiology and an upper-level course exploring animal-microbe interactions.

You can read more about some of Dr. Stewart's recent work here: https://www.montana.edu/news/23003/

It is 🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 once again!

The College of Ag is home to more than 120 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique portfolio, and we want to share them with you! Today, we head to the Department of Animal and Range Sciences to meet Dr. Georgia Harrison.

Dr. Harrison is a new Assistant Professor of Rangeland Ecology and her research focuses on rangeland plants, particularly how plant communities respond to environmental change, using field, drone, and satellite-based data. She is especially interested in integrating these data sources to inform restoration and grazing management across the western U.S. 🌱🌾

She is originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan but most recently moved from Las Cruces, NM! Outside of work, Dr. Harrison enjoys spending time outside, with her cats and playing with wool - usually in the form of knitting. 🧶

Happy 🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 'Cats!

The College of Ag is home to more than 120 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique portfolio, and we want to share them with you!

Dr. Dusty Perry serves as head of the Department of Agricultural and Technology Education, where he leads the department while teaching courses in agricultural systems and technology, including AGED 333 – Construction Technology (pictured).

Dr. Perry's research focuses on critical thinking, active learning and agricultural safety, and he remains deeply engaged in supporting teacher preparation and student success!

It's time for another 🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 !

The College of Ag is home to more than 120 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique portfolio, and we want to share them with you! Today, we're highlighting one of the college's most incredible administrators, someone who is a familiar face to ag students!

Dr. Liz Greenfield serves as the Assistant Dean of Student Success and Outreach - you can find her in the dean's office, but more often she's engaged with events all over campus! Dr. Greenfield had this to say about her role:

"I love the College of Agriculture because every day I get to work with students and colleagues whose passion for agriculture, life and environmental sciences is genuinely inspiring. My favorite part of what I do is helping students find their place—whether that’s through advising, scholarships, internships, or simply cheering them on as they discover their path.

I also treasure the collaboration across our departments; the people here care deeply about agriculture, our students, and building the next generation of leaders in ag, and that makes this work incredibly meaningful."

Happy 🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 Bobcats!

The College of Ag is home to more than 120 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique research portfolio, and we want to share them with you!

Today we join the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, where Dr. Anna K. Schweiger serves as an assistant professor. Born and raised in Austria, she appreciates the outdoors and loves all kinds of skiing. She is an ecologist and remote sensing scientist, and her research focuses on spectroscopy of plants and the development of scalable methods for remote sensing of biodiversity and ecosystem function.

Dr. Schweiger's expertise includes modeling and mapping of vegetation, soil and rocks and plant resource use, stress and disease. She has conducted extensive field work in natural and experimental alpine, forest, prairie and savanna ecosystems, and in managed forests. She also teaches courses in Remote Sensing!

Our ambassador spotlight of the week is 🍎Haylee Panter!🍎

What makes the college of ag feel like the right place for me?

The College of Ag feels like the right place for me because it’s a community that truly invests in its people—pushing me to grow academically and personally while surrounding me with support, shared values and a genuine sense of belonging.

Why should a prospective student attend MSU?

A prospective student should attend MSU's College of Agriculture because it offers hands-on, real-world learning through internships, research and extension opportunities rooted in its land-grant mission. MSU’s strong industry connections, supportive ag community and career-focused programs prepare students to succeed and make a meaningful impact in agriculture and natural resource fields.

Happy 🌟 Faculty Friday 🌟 Bobcats!

The College of Ag is home to more than 150 faculty members across six departments. Each has their own unique research portfolio, and we want to share them with you!

Dr. Blake Wiedenheft is a global leader in his field and well known around the MSU campus and beyond! A professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Dr. Wiedenheft grew up in Fort Peck, Montana and earned both his B.S. and Ph.D. in Microbiology at MSU. He then moved to UC Berkeley to study how bacteria defend themselves from viruses — work that helped shape the field of CRISPR biology and inspired new biotechnologies.

He was recently appointed the Winifred Asbjornson Plant Sciences Endowed Chair, and his lab is partnering with scientists and producers across Montana to apply new tools in molecular biology to one of the state’s most urgent agricultural challenges — protecting wheat from the devastating wheat stem sawfly.