ORONO, Maine — James Dill, pest management specialist and University of Maine Cooperative Extension professor, is the recipient of the University of Maine Presidential Public Engagement Award for impactful community engagement affecting Mainers of all ages and in multiple sectors, from agriculture to schools.
Dill, a UMaine alumnus, has been the UMaine Extension pest management specialist since 1981. He also serves as Extension professor, coordinating the UMaine Extension Diagnostic and Research Laboratory, and the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Pesticide Safety Education programs. The entomologist also has served as an associate program administrator, and legislative and congressional resource liaison.
In his more than 40-year career, Dill has been instrumental in growing and developing Maine’s pest management and pesticide safety education initiatives. Under his leadership as Maine’s first IPM coordinator, multiple agricultural sectors have increased crop yield and quality, reduced pest damage and minimized pesticide use through the implementation of IPM strategies. The economic impacts associated with these IPM programs over four decades is estimated at more than $200 million.
Dill’s state and regional public education and community engagement efforts have included outreach on insects, ticks and other arthropod pests, authoring manuals in IPM and pesticide safety, and publication in peer-reviewed literature. He is widely recognized in the Northeast for his ability to efficiently and effectively communicate with a wide variety of constituents, sharing evidence-based information and strategies to best address issues faced by homeowners, gardeners, commercial growers and policymakers.
Dill has served in the Maine Legislature since 2012, and is the senate chair of the committees on Agriculture, Conservation, Forestry, and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. His community service also includes leadership roles on local school boards and Orono-Old Town Kiwanis International. In 2017, he was honored with the New England Higher Education Excellence Award from the New England Board of Higher Education and the New England Higher Education Compact.
About the University of Maine:
The University of Maine, founded in Orono in 1865, is the state’s land grant, sea grant and space grant university. It is located on Marsh Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation. As Maine’s flagship public university, UMaine has a statewide mission of teaching, research and economic development, and community service. UMaine is the state’s only public research university and among the most comprehensive higher education institutions in the Northeast. It attracts students from all 50 states and more than 75 countries. UMaine currently enrolls 11,741 undergraduate and graduate students who have opportunities to participate in groundbreaking research with world-class scholars. UMaine offers more than 100 degree programs through which students can earn master’s, doctoral or professional science master’s degrees, as well as graduate certificates. The university promotes environmental stewardship, with substantial efforts campuswide to conserve energy, recycle and adhere to green building standards in new construction. For more information about UMaine, visit umaine.edu.
–University of Maine
For more articles out of New England, click here.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
MACHIAS, Maine — University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Washington County Office will move to its new home at the University of Maine at Machias later this month. The new location in the heart of campus will facilitate collaborations and connections that will strengthen UMaine Extension’s 4-H, nutrition and gardening programs, and provide additional pathways for […]
ORONO, Maine — University of Maine Cooperative Extension wild blueberry field days continue 4–6 p.m. June 14 at Brodis Blueberries, 87 Jones Hill Road, Hope. The Midcoast IPM field meeting will focus on pest and crop management and large-scale mulching. UMaine Extension wild blueberry specialist and University of Maine assistant professor of horticulture Lily Calderwood […]
ORONO, Maine — University of Maine Cooperative Extension 4-H youth development professional Carla Scocchi is the recipient of the 2021 Denise Miller National 4-H Innovator Award presented by the National Association of Extension 4-H Youth Development Professionals. The award “recognizes an individual or team who exemplifies innovation, accomplishment, and commitment in the design and delivery […]
ORONO, Maine — University of Maine Cooperative Extension will host a virtual wild blueberry conference with 14 biweekly sessions from 4–6 p.m. Feb. 1–March 17. Conference topics include weed, pest and disease management; water use and drought planning; pollinators, production and research updates; marketing and business management; updates from the Maine Wild Blueberry Commission; and […]
ORONO, Maine — A new testing lab at the University of Maine will help state landowners monitor their trees for the presence of the destructive eastern spruce budworm, a key step in tracking and mitigating a developing outbreak that could have severe impacts on Maine’s forest land and economy. Angela Mech, UMaine assistant professor of […]
