Director

Dr. Tara McHugh

Dr. McHugh received her B.S. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. from U.C. Davis, both in Food Science.  She is an internationally recognized expert in innovative food processing, edible films and nanoscience and a leader in high impact technology transfer. Her and her team’s cuttin​​g-edge science have positively impacted the food industry and rural economies, adding value to specialty crops and co-products, while creating jobs and improving human health and food safety. She authored 215 peer-reviewed publications and patents, many of which have been licensed, and led over 50 extramurally funded research projects.  She received a multitude of awards, including ARS’ Senior Scientist Award, two USDA Secretary Honors Awards, Arthur S. Flemming Award, three Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards and is a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists. Her research has an h-index of 57 and her manuscripts have received over 12,500 citations. Dr. McHugh has worked for ARS for over 30 years.

Associate Director

Dr. Frederick (Fred) Pierson

Dr. Fred Pierson is the Research Leader at the Northwest Watershed Research Center in Boise, ID. He received his B.S. degree in Range Management from Humboldt State University in 1983, his M.S. in Forest and Range Science in 1985 and Ph.D. in Soil Physics in 1988 from Washington State University. He began his career with ARS as a Post Doc in 1988 at the Northwest Watershed Research Center in Boise, ID. Dr. Pierson has conducted research on the ecohydrological impacts of changing plant community attributes associated with expansion of juniper woodlands, wild and prescribed fire, and implementation of rangeland conservation practices. He has been a leader in developing the Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM), the first and only erosion model developed specifically for rangeland applications. RHEM is now in widespread use across the US and in many foreign countries. Dr. Pierson became Research Leader in 2007 and leads six scientists in efforts to improve predictions of water supplies held in mountainous snowpacks, water, energy and carbon balances of dryland ecosystems, and management, utilization and restoration of sagebrush plant communities. His Unit operates the ARS Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in southwest Idaho with over 60 years of historical data and information that now provides the foundation for the ARS Great Basin Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network site, the NSF funded Critical Zone Observatory, and countless regional, national and international research collaborations. Dr. Pierson has over 200 publications, served for three years as a PWA Research Leader Advisory Council representative during the Year of the RL, and currently serves on the Leadership Team for the LTAR Network.

Associate Director (Acting)

Dr. Colin Brent

Dr. Brent received his B.A. in Biology from the University of Chicago in 1990, and his Ph.D. in Biology from Boston University in 2001. His graduate work focused on the development and behavior of termites. Between 2001 and 2005, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at North Carolina State University, studying endocrine and pheromonal factors modulating colony dynamics in ants and termites. In 2005, he became an Assistant Research Professor at Arizona State University, extending his studies of exogenous and endogenous developmental regulators to include honey bees. Dr. Brent joined the USDA-ARS as a Research Entomologist in 2007, at the Pest Management and Biocontrol Research Unit in Maricopa, Arizona. During his tenure there, his research has focused on the molecular and biochemical mechanisms guiding development, metabolism and reproduction in a variety of insects, with a special focus on pests of cotton. Dr. Brent served as the Unit’s Acting Research Leader (RL) from 2016 to the end of 2021, at which point he became the permanent RL. From 2022 to 2024, he concurrently served as the acting Director of the Arid Land Agricultural Research Center. In addition to his normal responsibilities, Dr. Brent is an editor for multiple journals, serves on the executive board of the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America, is part of an advisory board assisting the National Invasive Species Council in developing a strategic framework for biological control, and is a member of the ARS Research Leader Advisory Council.