The National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) is pleased to announce that the first recipient of the NTEP Distinguished Service Award is Dr. Scott Ebdon, Professor Emeritus of Turfgrass Science, at Stockbridge School of Agriculture.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the turfgrass industry through cooperation with, or support of NTEP.

Dr. Ebdon received the award at the Crop Science of America annual conference in Baltimore, MD, on November 9, 2022.

Because of his research on water use and drought tolerance in turfgrasses, Dr. Ebdon is a recognized expert on how grasses utilize water and in understanding drought tolerance mechanisms. 

Dr. Mike Richardson, University of Arkansas nominated Dr. Ebdon for the award, noting that Ebdon's greatest contribution to NTEP is probably his efforts to improve NTEP’s statistical analysis procedures.  In addition, Dr. Ebdon has been instrumental in his commitment to the NTEP database and the revolutionary, publicly available Turfgrass Trial Explorer search engine, aiding in design, accuracy and output of statistics critical to the success of this new product.

Ebdon recently retired after 25 years of service to the University of Massachusetts and the Stockbridge Turfgrass Science program, rated #1 in New England and #2 nationally.

NTEP, established in 1980, is a non-profit program that develops and coordinates uniform evaluation trials of turfgrass varieties and promising selections across the United States and Canada.  NTEP is currently testing over 600 cultivars and experimental selections, encompassing about twenty turfgrass species.  Trial locations can be found at land-grant universities in forty states, and about 25 golf courses nationwide.