Alan Walters | SIU

Horticulture

Dr. Alan Walters is a Professor of Vegetable Science and Breeding in the School of Forestry and Horticulture at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. He is also a prestigious Fulbright Research Scholar.

He grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains in North Georgia and attended the University of Georgia, where he obtained a B.S.A in Agronomy (1986) and M.P.P.P.M. in Plant Pathology (1988). He then attended North Carolina State University and completed M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Horticultural Science in 1991 and 1997, respectively. He has been at Southern Illinois University since 1998 and is responsible for teaching several classes including Home Gardening, Commercial Vegetable Production, Crop Physiology, Organic Gardening, and Plants for the Ecological Landscape. His research activities have focused on many different applied cultural management issues in vegetable production, with more than 80 peer-reviewed publications resulting from this research. Most of his research has focused on areas such as pollination ecology of cucurbit vegetables, reduced tillage practices for vegetables, vermicomposts as alternative fertilizers, fertility management in vegetable crops, vegetable disease and weed management, local-sustainable vegetable production, and horseradish production and breeding. His successful research program has led to the education and training of more than 40 graduate students who have worked under his direction. Dr. Walters has also edited more than 250 professional manuscripts, written numerous book chapters, as well as a book on Home Gardening Practices, and has delivered well over 200 outreach or extension-type presentations over his career.