Celebrating Excellence

Sue Barton, Ph.D.

Excellence in Extension Award

Susan Barton, PhD is an extension specialist and professor in the Plant and Soil Sciences Department at the University of Delaware. She has worked with DelDOT for the past 20+ years to research and implement new roadside vegetation management strategies. She has also worked with partners to develop the Plants for a Livable Delaware Program, designed to provide alternatives to known invasive plant species and to promote sustainable landscaping. She teaches Plants and Human Culture, Landscape Drawing, Landscape Architecture Symposium, and Landscape Management, and she coordinates the Landscape Architecture/Plant Science Internship. She works closely with the nursery and landscape industry, writing newsletters, organizing short courses, and conducting horticulture industry expos with the Delaware Nursery and Landscape Association.  

Susan received the Nursery Extension Award from the American Nursery and Landscape Association in 1995 and the Ratledge Award for service from the University of Delaware in 2007. She received her SITES AP certification in the summer of 2017. In 2021, Susan received the George M. Worrilow Award from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, given to a college alumni with exemplary service to agriculture in the state.

Larry Armstrong

Excellence in Service Award (Staff)

Larry was hired in 1997 as Farm Assistant for the UD Webb Farm. Having grown up on the family farm near Smyrna, DE he developed a love for nature and being outdoors at a very young age. The family farm was his playground and also his first classroom. Life lessons learned there inspire him today.

Larry’s passion to best care for the land was most strongly exemplified by his Grandparents, John and Helen McQuail. With the support of a group of local farmers, they took Royal Dutch Shell Oil Co. to the U.S. Supreme Court, helping to create what is now the Coastal Zone Management Act. The Act protects critical estuarine habitat along Delaware’s coast from industrial development.  

A lifelong student of the natural sciences, Larry best enjoys nurturing life and helping living things to grow and thrive. This includes people, animals, plants, and even soil microbes!

Promoted to Farm Manager in 2014, Larry continues the good work of his predecessor and manages the land for the maximum benefit of all species, domestic and wild.  This is challenging yet rewarding work. His favorite saying is: “Farming is a race between weather events.” 

Reluctant to be in the spotlight, Larry prefers his work to speak for itself. He is honored when told that he is a good teacher because this is a profession he holds in the highest regard. He has the privilege to work with the best students, staff, and professors in the world.      

His past awards include the Governor’s Award for Conservation, New Castle County Conservation District’s Award for Conservation, Delaware Ornithological Society’s Conservation Award, and UD’s Green Hen Award for sustainability. After two previous nominations, he realizes the Excellence in Service Award does not come easy, and he is very proud to have his life’s work recognized by receiving this accolade. 

Kent Messer, Ph.D.

Excellence in Research Award (Faculty)

Kent Messer is the S. Hallock du Pont Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Delaware. He serves as the Director of the Center for Behavioral and Experimental Agri-Environmental Research (CBEAR), a USDA Center of Excellence. Messer’s research interests are in the nexus of agriculture and the environment. 

Messer received a BA from Grinnell College, an MS from the University of Michigan, and a PhD from Cornell University. He has published more than 120 publications and two textbooks. He has been an investigator on interdisciplinary proposals worth more than $75 million. Messer has served as editor of the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review and is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. In 2023, he led a commission report to the US National Academy of Sciences entitled “Applications of Behavioral Economics to Climate Change.”