The Serbian Weed Science Society honored Stevan Z. Knezevic, a professor of integrated weed management in agronomy and horticulture, with a Certificate of Appreciation on Sept. 24 during the 12th Serbian Weed Science Society Conference, held at the Danubia Park Hotel at Silver Lake in northeastern Serbia.
The award, which is similar to a Fellow award in the United States, was given to Knezevic for his work in advancing weed science in Serbia and for training Serbian graduate students at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Knezevic joined the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1998 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 2004 and became a full professor in 2010. He grew up in Belgrade, Serbia (former Yugoslavia). He received a bachelor’s degree in plant protection from the University of Belgrade. He moved to Canada where he received a Master of Science in weed science from the University of Guelph. Then, he moved to the United States to pursue doctoral studies at Kansas State University, where he received a Ph.D. in weed science.
His areas of research include developing weed control strategies based on a multidisciplinary approach that builds bridges among scientific disciplines — especially between weed/crop ecology and herbicide technology. For more than 20 years, Knezevic has developed nationally and internationally recognized expertise on Critical Period of Weed Control, dose-response studies and weed flaming, with data analysis on each.
He teaches graduate and undergraduate students including Agronomy 822 Integrated Weed Management and Plant and Landscape Systems 496/Agronomy 896 in Independent Studies at Nebraska.
Since 2010, Knezevic has trained 20 students from Serbia on the topics of dose response, herbicide resistance, flame weeding, critical period of weed control, dicamba drift and hormesis. Some of the students stayed six months, some stayed two years and earned master’s degrees while others earned doctorates such as current Ph.D. student, Luka Milosevic, who is specializing in weed science and served as the Agronomy and Horticulture Graduate Student Association president during the 2023–24 academic year.
Knezevic also mentored multiple students conducting projects in Serbia. He currently has two students in Serbia — Marija Nedeljkovic, who is working on a master’s degree, and Darko Jovanovic, working on a doctorate.
