Congratulations to Rebecca McGrail for receiving the Gerald O. Mott Meritorious Graduate Student Award in Crop Science.  This award recognizes top-notch graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in crop science disciplines. Departments select students based on academic achievements, research and teaching contributions, leadership accomplishments, service activities and personal qualifications. 

Rebecca received her BS in Environmental Chemistry at Saint Vincent College and her MS in Agronomy from West Virginia University. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. David McNear's soil rhizosphere lab where she is studying primary physical and biogeochemical processes affecting the transformation, movement, and storage of phosphorus in managed agroecosystems. Her research includes an evaluation of a winter wheat panel from 1808 to 2002 for changes in phosphorus extraction potential with the introduction of semi-dwarfism. Her research also evaluates rhizosphere priming and root turnover under differing soil phosphorus regimes and crop rotations.

In addition, she is the current president of the IPSS Graduate Student Association. She has served as a TA for Fundamentals of Soil Science for three years and is one of the Spring instructors for Issues in Agriculture, Food, and the Environment.