Meet our technician (2019) - Amanda Jorgensen

Hello there! I’m Amanda Jorgensen and I’ve been working in the IPM Program for 6 years!  I was a student in the IPM lab here at Beaverlodge (first a co-op student, then doing my M.Sc.) and have introduced myself as a student in 2016 and 2017. Now, I completed my Master’s degree from the University of Alberta and have been hired on indeterminately as a research technician at the Beaverlodge Research Farm. I am very excited to expand my responsibilities and take on more of the day-to-day lab management tasks that I took for granted as a student.

Figure 1. Amanda (left) with Shelby Dufton (right) in a wheat field at the edge of the Peace River Valley.

As a technician, I am involved in a lot more than I was as a student. While I am still been working to wrap up some wheat midge work, I will work more with insect pests and beneficial organisms in perennial grass and legume seed crops! I am currently contacting growers in the region seeking producer-cooperators who kindly allow us access to their fields so we can collect insects and assess insect-related damage in crops including creeping red fescue, smooth and meadow brome, red and alsike clover, plus alfalfa. In the past few years I focused on annual crops so I’m excited to expand my horizons!

Thanks for reading!
Amanda.jorgensen@canada.ca

Figure 2. Amanda collecting soil samples in a typical Northern Alberta spring.