Dr. Jan Netland passed away


Obituary Jan Netland

We have received the sad message that Dr. Jan Netland passed away on Friday 21 January 2022, only 70 years old. Jan Netland made his Dr. Scient. on Poa annua in 1985 at the Agricultural University of Norway (now Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NMBU). He started working at The Norwegian Plant Protection Institute, which is now the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), in 1977 and has since stayed on as a weed scientist at the same place, interrupted by a few years in the plant protection industry, before going back to science in 1990. Jan Netland became the leader of the Department of Herbology in 1998, a position he held for many years. As a leader he was humane, included other people and had an open mind. He had the ability to see what was important in a trial and kept focus on finding practical solutions for farmers. He was involved in projects on chemical, mechanical and biological weed control, herbicide resistance, and contributed to progress in precision weed control in collaboration with colleagues and Norwegian companies, to mention a few examples of Jan Netland’s many contributions. Jan Netland knew how to get things done by collaboration with people. Jan Netland also initiated research on control measures of invasive plant species and participated in the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) Panel on Invasive Alien Plants from its first days and onwards. We are proud and grateful that he offered to organize the 14th EWRS Symposium in Hamar, Norway in 2007. He afterwards served as a member of the Board of EWRS in 2010–2013. The last years of his work life were unfortunately hampered by health issues. We will miss a creative, warm, and knowledgeful colleague and true human being. Our warm thoughts go to his wife, Berit, and their two children with families. May he rest in peace.

Colleagues at NIBIO and NMBU

Picture of Jan Netland by Erling Fløistad/NIBIO

 

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