Dr. Richard C. McDonald

Education

B.S. Agriculture/IPM Univ. of Mo.-Columbia 1982
Worked for 1 year as a technician at the USDA Biological Control Laboratory in Columbia, MO; then pursued an M.S.: M.S. Entomology Univ. of Mo.-Columbia 1986 "The Status of the Musk Thistle Flowerhead Weevil, Rhinocyllus conicus (Froelich) as a Biological Control Agent of Musk Thistle in Missouri"
Awards: Phillip C. Stone Award for Outstanding Achievement in Entomology - 1986; C.V. Riley Award of Merit
Ph.D. Entomology Va. Polytechnic Inst. & State Univ. 1990 "The Impact of the Microbial Pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki on Hymenopterous Parasites of the Imported Cabbageworm, Pieris rapae (L.) in Broccoli."
Awards: David R. Spence Fellowship Award for Outstanding research in sustainable agriculture.
From 1990 to 1997, Dr. McDonald was Biological Control Administrator and State Apiarist for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture in Raleigh, NC.
In November of 1996, he and his wife of 14 years, Kate Cahow, moved to Sugar Grove, NC, to realize their shared dream of living and working in the mountains. He started a company called Symbiont Biological Pest Management.