Dr.
Michael Orzolek received his Ph.D. in horticulture at
the University of Maryland in 1974, and is currently
professor of vegetable crops in the Department of
Horticulture at Pennsylvania State University where has
served for the past 26years. He teaches plant nutrition
and his research with vegetables has dealt primarily
with nutrition, drip irrigation and use of plastic
mulches and low tunnels to obtain earlier maturity and
improve yields of warm season crops.
Mike
has been a long-time member of ASP and a strong
supporter of the Society. He served on the Board from
1994 to 1998, and then served as President in 1999 and
2000. It was during his term as President that ASP
hosted the International Congress on Plastics in
Agriculture in Hershey, PA. He has also been a
long-standing member and contributor to ASP, having
chaired the National Agricultural Plastics Congress,
moderated paper sessions at past congresses, and served
on numerous committees in the Society.
He has also advanced the status of
plasticulture as one of the founders in 1998 of the
Center for Plasticulture at Penn State. Mike was elected
Director of the Center after the first year from the
original core members and has been its only Director in
the ensuing years. His leadership was instrumental in
the Center serving as the focal point for an ASP webinar
in 2004 that promoted plasticulture to media throughout
the nation.
His dedication to the American
Society for Plasticulture and his willingness to invest
his time, expertise, and enthusiasm in the Society are
exemplified by the vast contribution he has made in
presenting papers at almost every Congress since 1991.
His collection of research is also represented in dozens
of other noteworthy publications.
