BRYAN, Texas—Congratulations to Dr. Brad Hopkins as he received the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Early Career Award.
The award recognizes former students in the College that have made significant accomplishments and contributions at the state, national or international levels in agriculture, natural resources or the life sciences and who graduated from the college within the past 15 years.
Hopkins was recognized at the annual Legacy and Leadership banquet held at the Brazos County Expo Center on November 18.
Hopkins received his bachelor’s, masters, and Ph.D. from the Department and currently works at Dow AgroSciences global headquarters in Indianapolis as a Global Biology Leader.
As a Global Biology leader, Hopkins works with different clients including working with other companies that provide seed treatments to evaluate what Dow’s options are and to make recommendations to their seed brands globally. He also plans the company’s global internal research program and acts as a consulting resource to their seed brands for seed treatment.
Before joining Dow, Hopkins worked as a crop consultant at Hopkins Agricultural Service, Inc, in Portland, Texas. Hopkins said the company, owned by his father, Sidney Hopkins, specializes in crop consulting and contract research with producers of cotton and grain sorgum, as well as other crops in the company’s coverage area.
During his time as a Ph.D. student, Hopkins worked in Dr. Patricia Pietrantonio’s lab where his research focused mainly on pyrethroid resistance management in the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa zea). From a research standpoint, he tested new technologies and assessed how they performed in the field. The testing of these new technologies allowed Hopkins to teach producers how they work and which ones will work best in increasing their profits.
“His interest evolved from general and field entomology to molecular science with special emphasis in insect toxicology,” said Dr. David Ragsdale, entomology department head and nominator. “The faculty recognized Brad for his leadership, maturity, responsibility, intelligence and common sense.”
Hopkins felt grateful for the award and said that it was a great honor to be at the ceremony.
“I felt truly honored to be recognized by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Department of Entomology for such a prestigious award,” Hopkins said. “Living in the Midwest, we don’t have a lot of opportunities to visit Texas, so it was great to get to see Texas A&M and be able to share the experience with family, friends and Dr. Pietrantonio and her husband at the award reception.”
Pietrantonio was very excited for Hopkins and was very proud of his accomplishments.
“I am personally extremely proud of Brad accomplishments both academically and in his current position at Dow AgroSciences, for which he was also recognized with an award in 2014.”
“I attended the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Awards Recognition Banquet and it was truly inspiring to see Brad and other early career Aggies following on the footsteps of so many other, more senior former students that have shown academic and work leadership, integrity and community service,” she said. “As a professor, students like Brad validate our work and the reasons why we are here for–to contribute to maintaining our tradition of academic excellence, development of valuable human resources and through them, serve society both in the short and long terms.”
Pietrantonio also noted that Hopkins was an inspiration to others in the field.
“Brad is a role model for his fellow entomology students and of what they can achieve through tenacity, motivation, applying their talent and fostering their own curiosity,” she said.