UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Margaret Hoffman recently joined Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences as assistant professor of landscape contracting.
Erin Connolly, professor and head of the Department of Plant Science, said that Hoffman's academic credentials, paired with her previous experience operating her own landscape contracting business, make her uniquely qualified to run the college's landscape contracting program.
"Dr. Hoffman has an outstanding record in teaching and research, and we are thrilled to welcome her," Connolly said. "She is well-positioned to lead our program and generate research and programming that will strongly support the landscape contracting industry in Pennsylvania."
Hoffman's research interests include biological filtration of natural swimming pools, recreational water quality, residential landscape design, plant design, green roofs, riparian ecological restoration, and landscape construction.
She received a bachelor of science degree in forestry, with a minor in urban forestry, from the University of Minnesota, and a doctorate in horticulture from Penn State.
Prior to joining the Penn State faculty, Hoffman was an assistant professor of landscape horticulture at the California Polytechnic State University. She also served as an assistant professor of sustainable horticulture at Western Illinois University and has more than 15 years of horticulture industry experience as owner and designer of Hoffman's Garden by Design.