MISSISSIPPI STATE -- A research scientist with more than two decades of experience with cropping systems is the first recipient of an endowed chair in Mississippi State University’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences.

Daniel B. Reynolds, a professor of weed science at MSU, has been named the first Dr. Glover B. Triplett Endowed Chair in Agronomy. The Triplett Endowed Chair recognizes major contributions to Mississippi State by Triplett and his wife Imogene.

Reynolds earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees through the University of Arkansas system and a doctorate in crop science from Oklahoma State University.

Reynolds joined the staff of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station in 1986 and conducted weed control research with soybeans, corn, cotton and cereal grains in northeast Louisiana. At MSU, his responsibilities include teaching and weed control research in corn and cotton.

“As the holder of the Triplett chair, Dr. Reynolds will provide leadership in agronomy education and research, as well as outreach to industry,” said Jac Varco, interim head of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. “The endowment will help fund research in the use of minimum tillage in crop production, Dr. Triplett’s area of expertise and for which he has received international recognition.”

Triplett, a native of Noxubee County, helped develop successful no-tillage crop production systems at Ohio State University in the 1960s. The soil-saving practices were radical at the time, but today are in widespread use throughout the United States and overseas. He retired from Ohio State in 1982 and returned to Mississippi, where he continues his no-till work as a research professor with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station at MSU.