Rate My Professor Jed Eberly

Jed Eberly is an Associate Professor of Agronomy and Soil Microbiology at Montana State University’s Central Agricultural Research Center in Moccasin, Montana. He earned his Ph.D. in Biological and Ecological Engineering from Oregon State University in 2010, where his dissertation focused on the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus as a model for carbon sequestration, biofuel, and biomaterial production. He received his B.S. in Biology, with minors in Chemistry and Physics, magna cum laude, from Montana State University-Billings in 2004. Prior to joining Montana State University in 2017 as an Assistant Professor, Eberly served as a Research Microbiologist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi, from 2011 to 2017. There, he managed projects on microbial community dynamics in soils exposed to insensitive munitions, metagenomic analysis of denitrifying cultures transforming explosives, and development of microbial biosensors for environmental contaminants. His early career included undergraduate research on ultraviolet light effects on photosystem II in wheat and isolation of S-layer proteins from Yellowstone archaea.

Eberly’s research program emphasizes applied and basic studies on soil microorganisms to enhance soil quality and crop performance, particularly for dryland crops in central Montana. He investigates microbial impacts on agronomic traits, evaluates seed- and soil-applied inoculants to mitigate plant stresses and boost yields, manages the cereal crop variety testing program, and contributes to forage crop research. Notable publications include 'Compositional profiling of the rhizosphere microbiome of Canada thistle reveals consistent patterns across the United States northern Great Plains' (Scientific Reports, 2024), 'Changes in Biological Soil Health Properties in Response to Increased Crop Diversity in a Dryland Wheat-Based Cropping System' (Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 2024), 'Soil bacterial community response to cover crop introduction in a wheat-based dryland cropping system' (Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2022), and earlier works such as 'Metagenomic analysis of denitrifying wastewater enrichment cultures able to transform the explosive, 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO)' (Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology, 2016). He has secured grants from the U.S. Army Basic Research Program, including projects on epigenetic mechanisms, synthetic biology impacts, and bioremediation. Awards include the NSF IGERT Fellowship (2005), ASEE/DoD SMART Scholarship (2007), and recognition as an Outstanding Associate Editor for Agronomy Journal in 2021. Eberly delivers webinars on soil health and contributes to extension seminars on cereal varieties.