{"id":702,"date":"2025-11-06T16:12:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/?p=702"},"modified":"2025-11-06T16:12:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:12:04","slug":"congratulations-zia-for-accepting-the-assistant-professor-position-on-ornamental-and-turfgrass-at-mississippi-state-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/2025\/11\/congratulations-zia-for-accepting-the-assistant-professor-position-on-ornamental-and-turfgrass-at-mississippi-state-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations, Zia! for accepting the Assistant Professor position on Ornamental and Turfgrass at Mississippi State University"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Congratulations! So proud of you! Details about the new position in her own words &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hi! I\u2019m Zia Williamson, and I\u2019m a current PhD Candidate in Dr. Joseph\u2019s lab. I\u2019m from Lincolnton, Georgia, and my love and interest for insects started early on, growing up in a rural area surrounded by nature, with my parents owning and operating their own landscaping business. Before starting in Dr. Joseph\u2019s lab, I earned bachelor\u2019s degrees in entomology and horticulture from the University of Georgia. As an undergraduate, I was involved in undergraduate research, gaining experience in fruit pathology, nematology, museum collections, and plant production. This was followed by a master\u2019s program in the University of Georgia Department of Entomology, where I researched trunk-boring beetle pests of specialty tree crops, co-advised by Dr. Joseph and Dr. Brett Blaauw. In my PhD, I am currently focusing on projects relating to the ecology of bees in ornamental horticulture-oriented settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While I\u2019m still working to finish up my doctoral program, <strong>I am very proud to announce that I\u2019ve accepted an offer for a position as an assistant professor of ornamental and turfgrass extension at Mississippi State University<\/strong>, where I\u2019ll be starting in May of 2026! In this role, I will conduct training and education programs, as well as develop a robust applied research program to enhance the success of growers and stakeholders throughout the state, generating scientifically informed recommendations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1001\" src=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/files\/2025\/11\/6-1024x1001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-709\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/files\/2025\/11\/6-1024x1001.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/files\/2025\/11\/6-300x293.jpg 300w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/files\/2025\/11\/6-768x751.jpg 768w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/files\/2025\/11\/6-1536x1502.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/files\/2025\/11\/6.jpg 1636w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations! So proud of you! Details about the new position in her own words &#8230; Hi! I\u2019m Zia Williamson, and I\u2019m a current PhD Candidate in Dr. Joseph\u2019s lab. I\u2019m from Lincolnton, Georgia, and my love and interest for insects started early on, growing up in a rural area surrounded by nature, with my parents [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions\/710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/josephlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}