Dr. Darrin M. Dodds
Professor and Associate Director MAFES
638 New Hope Church Road
Starkville, MS 39759
dmd76@msstate.edu
Phone: 662-325-3004

Darrin Dodds currently serves as Professor and Associate Director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station at Mississippi State University. He previously served in an Extension/Research faculty position as well as Head of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at Mississippi State. Darrin is a native of Rushville, Illinois and has a B.S. in Agriculture from Western Illinois University, a M.S. with a concentration in Weed Science from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. with a concentration in Weed Science from Mississippi State University. Darrin has graduated 13 M.S. and 7 Ph.D. students and currently has 4 M.S. students and 4 Ph.D. students under his direction and has served on 36 graduate student committees. Darrin has authored or co-authored 91 refereed manuscripts, 2 book chapters, 68 extension publications, and 360+ published abstracts. Over the course of his career, he has generated grants and contracts that total nearly $10M. With respect to teaching, he has taught PSS 4813/6813 – Herbicide Technology and PSS 4411/6611 – Remote Sensing Seminar and was presented with the Outstanding Educator Award and Outstanding Teacher Award from the Southern Weed Science Society and Weed Science Society of America, respectively.

Darrin has served on annually as a student contest judge at the Beltwide Cotton Conference, the Southern Weed Science Society (SWSS), and the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) as well as on numerous committees for each of these organizations. In addition, Darrin has served as student presentation contest committee chair or co-chair four times for the SWSS and three times for the WSSA (current chairperson) and previously served as the Weed Science section chair at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences. He was instrumental in the initiation of the student presentation contest at the WSSA Annual Meeting, helping author the initial set of rules and scoresheets and serving as the initial contest chair. Darrin was also instrumental in adapting the WSSA oral presentation contest from the traditional 15-minute presentations to the single slide format that is currently used. He has also served as the chairperson for the SWSS summer weed contest and is a past president of the Endowment Foundation for the SWSS. Darrin has served on the SWSS and WSSA board of directors as the SWSS representative to the WSSA as well as secretary on the WSSA Board of Directors. Additional service includes PresidentElect and Program Chair, Vice-President, President, and Past-President of the Southern Weed Science Society.

Dr. Dodds has contributed to international collaborations through partnerships with the USDA – Foreign Ag Service where he has served as a mentor to scientists from Mozambique and Zambia. In addition, he has served as part of collective efforts to establish student exchange programs and faculty collaborations with personnel in Morocco and Brazil. Darrin has traveled professionally to more than 15 countries and is passionate about improving agriculture and food security globally.