COLLEGE STATION – Dr. J. Chris Stiegler, who joined Texas AgriLife Research and the department of soil and crop sciences at Texas A&M University as an assistant professor of turfgrass science and ecology in August, has been killed in a car accident.

Stiegler and his wife, Jenny, both died in the wreck near Waco. Their infant daughter, Emily, survived but is in critical condition at a hospital in Temple. She is expected to recover.

“Few young scientists have done as much as Chris Stiegler did in his short career in soil and crop sciences at Texas A&M,” said department head Dr. David Baltensperger. “He and his wife, Jenny and their baby daughter Emily were instantly endeared to all of us in the department.”

Stieger was hired to focus on management systems to address irrigation water quantity and quality issues, along with research in heat and drought stress physiology, nitrogen fertility and turfgrass ecology in the urban landscape, according to news reports at that time.

In addition to research, Stiegler was to teach turfgrass ecology and physiology in the spring semester.

Stiegler earned his doctorate from the University of Arkansas and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Oklahoma State University.

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