Ross Braun

Dr. Braun is an Assistant Professor of Turfgrass and Landscape Management with a teaching/advising (60%) and research (40%) appointment and the Director of the Rocky Ford Turfgrass Research Center at Kansas State University (KSU). He was raised in North Dakota, where he attended North Dakota State University (B.S. degree in Sports & Urban Turfgrass Management, 2011). Before graduate school research at Kansas State University in 2012, he already had 10 years of experience in lawn, landscape, and golf course management in North Dakota, Wyoming, and Minnesota. He received his M.S. degree in Horticulture from Kansas State University in 2014 under Drs. Jack Fry and Megan Kennelly. He received his Ph.D. in Horticulture from Kansas State University in 2017 under Dr. Dale Bremer.

During graduate school he conducted and contributed to a number of basic and applied research projects. These projects focused on turfgrass colorants, experimental zoysiagrass evaluation, National Turfgrass Evaluation Program cultivar trials, fertilizer source and application timing on Rhizoctonia large patch disease, fungicide efficacy, cultural weed and disease management, managing turf to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration, and turfgrass stress physiology in response to deficit irrigation, drought, and traffic stresses. The latter two projects focused on water conservation and stress management, an important issue in Kansas and surrounding states. After graduate school, he was a Lead Research Scholar in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Purdue University under the mentorship of Dr. Aaron Patton, Turfgrass Extension Specialist at Purdue University, for four years with research focused on low-input turfgrass systems such as fine fescues and zoysiagrass, sod production, establishment and management barriers in low-input turfgrass systems, zoysiagrass freeze tolerance, zoysiagrass genotype evaluation, water submersion (flooding stress) tolerance of cool-season turfgrass species, weed control strategies, and developing innovative research equipment.