Rate My Professor Sarah White

Sarah White is Professor of Water Quality and Treatment and Nursery Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Clemson University, College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences. She earned a BS in Horticulture from Clemson University in 2000, an MS in Horticultural Science from Virginia Tech in 2003, and a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from Clemson University in 2007. Clemson University hired her in July 2008 as Assistant Professor and Nursery and Landscape Extension Specialist in the Horticulture Department, with a statewide role addressing water quality and quantity issues for commercial nurseries, landscape professionals, and Extension agents in a 60% Extension and 40% research appointment. She has advanced to full Professor, contributing to the Horticulture Program Team, Water Resources Program Team, SC Water Resources Center, and Biological Sciences Department.

White's academic interests center on water management and quality in specialty crop production, particularly evaluating plant and bio-based treatment technologies such as constructed wetlands, floating treatment wetlands, and vegetated buffers to remove nutrients, pesticides, and pathogens from irrigation runoff, enabling on-farm water reuse. Her laboratory screened over 20 plant species for nutrient uptake and salinity tolerance. From 2014 to 2019, she directed a national team from 10 universities in the Clean WateR3 project, funded by $8.2 million from the USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative, to reduce, remediate, and recycle water. She currently leads a $2.6 million NOAA Marine Debris project via the SC Sea Grant Consortium to develop non-plastic flotation for floating treatment wetlands. The lab has produced 66 peer-reviewed journal articles, 116 trade articles, 38 Extension documents, 31 conference proceedings, and 8 decision support tools. Notable publications include Jeffers et al., "Evaluating Consumer Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Knowledge" (HortTechnology, 2025); Escamilla et al., "Basil and Swiss chard: edible crops for use in floating treatment wetlands improving agricultural runoff" (Ecological Engineering, 2025); and Yazdi et al., "A Critical Review of Irrigation Retention Reservoir Performance and Design Considerations to Enhance Water Security for Specialty Crops" (Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021). White received the Experiment Station Section Excellence in Multistate Research Award in 2017 and co-authored an ASABE Superior Paper Award-winning publication in 2025. She holds leadership positions including Clemson University Faculty Senate Vice President (2024-25) and President (2025-26), American Society for Horticultural Science Vice President for Research (2023-25), and Southern Region ASHS President (2025-26). She co-founded Land-Grant Press and serves as consulting editor for HortTechnology.