Thomas Holtzer

Professor & Department Head

Thomas.Holtzer@ColoState.edu
C129 Plant Sciences
(970) 491-5261

As Department Head, my primary commitment is to administration of the department’s classroom teaching, research, and outreach/extension programs. Additional administrative responsibilities include service as Director of Colorado State University’s Center for Bioinformatics, Cluster Leader for Decision Support Systems and Bioinformatics within the CSU Infectious Disease Supercluster and membership on the Supercluster’s Management and Oversight Committee.

In addition, I continue direct, active involvement in research and teaching, including advising graduate students in Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. In research, my emphasis is in Integrated Pest Management as a component of dryland

cropping systems and in the migration, dispersal, biological control, and landscape-scale ecology of Russian wheat aphid.

In recent years I have become increasingly involved in developing interdisciplinary teams to address research and outreach needs related to complex agricultural and natural resource problems. An outgrowth of this interest resulted in me serving as coordinator of the grant-funded Lower South Platte Irrigation Research and Development Project. The primary focus of this work is to develop and investigate cropping system options that meet two goals: use less water that can be made available for meeting increasing urban water needs but at the same time sustain viable economic returns to the agricultural and rural sectors.

In the classroom, I began co-teaching the undergraduate course AGRI/PHIL Agricultural Ethics in spring 2006. This course begins with discussions of major ethical theories and continues with analysis of key agricultural issues (such as pesticide, genetically modified crop plants and animals, and water) from the perspectives of these theories.

In addition to my CSU involvements, I am active in the Entomological Society of America, where I served two terms on the Governing Board. I also have recently served on the Board of Directors of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). Currently, I serve as Co-director of the USDA / CSREES funded Western Integrated Pest Management Center and am a member of the USDA / CSREES National IPM Steering Committee.

Course I Teach:

Agricultural Ethics (AGRI/PHIL 330) (Spring)

Representative Publications:

Holtzer, T.O., R.L. Anderson, M.P. McMullan, and F.B. Peairs. 1996. Integrated Pest Management of insect pests, weeds, and plant diseases in dryland agricultural systems. Journal of Production Agriculture 9:200-208.

Carter, M.R., I.V. MacRae, J.A. Logan, T.O. Holtzer. 1998. Population model for Melanoplus sanguinipes (Orthoptera: Acrididae) and an analysis of grasshopper population fluctuations in Colorado. Environ. Entomol. 27:892-901.

Elliott, N.C., G.L. Hein, M.C. Carter, J.D. Burd, T.O. Holtzer, and J.S. Armstrong. 1998. Russian wheat aphid ecology and modeling in Great Plains agricultural landscapes. In Quisenberry, S.S. and F.B. Peairs (eds.) Response Model for an Introduced Pest – The Russian Wheat Aphid. Thomas Say Publications in Entomology. Entomological Society of America, Lanham MD, pp. 31-64.

Mohamed, A.H., P.J. Lester, and T.O. Holtzer. 2000. The abundance and effects of predators and parasitoids of the Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko) (Homoptera: Aphididae), under organic farming conditions in Colorado. Environ. Entomol. 29:360-368.

Lester, P.J. and T.O. Holtzer. 2002. Patch and prey utilization behaviors by Aphelinus albipodus and Diaeretiella rapae (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae and Aphidiidae) on Russian wheat aphid (Homoptera: Aphididae). Biological Control 24: 183-191.