Professor and director of the Oregon Integrated Pest Management Center, Oregon State University

LinkedIn.com/in/RondonS/
Silvia I. Rondon, Ph.D., serves as director of the Oregon State University (OSU) Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Center and as a professor and extension entomology specialist in the Department of Crop and Soil Science. From August 2021 to September 2022, she served as interim director of the OSU Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in entomology from Agraria University in Lima, Peru, and her Ph.D. in crop sciences, with a major in entomology and IPM, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2002, she completed a postdoctoral appointment in the University of Florida Horticulture Department. She joined OSU in 2005, where her appointment included research and extension responsibilities and leadership of the Irrigated Agricultural Entomology Program. In this role, she secured and managed more than $36 million in private, state, and federal funding. Her expertise centers on integrated pest management, with emphasis on insect ecology, distribution, population dynamics, insect-plant interactions, and biological and chemical control strategies. She has collaborated extensively with commodity groups representing potatoes, grass seed, wheat, and high-value vegetable crops, including onions, sweet corn, hemp, and carrots. Rondon has authored more than 137 peer-reviewed scientific and extension publications, 16 book chapters, and 174 additional scholarly and professional works, including abstracts and reports. She has delivered 43 international, 142 national, and 151 regional presentations, as well as 194 extension presentations. Mentorship is a central component of her professional mission. Rondon has mentored undergraduate and graduate students, interns, postdoctoral scholars, early-career professionals, and colleagues within academic and professional organizations, as well as international students through the Entomentos program. Most recently, she served as President of the Entomological Society of America Pacific Branch (2024–2025).