Tifton Campus: Points of Pride

The Southern Division American Phytopathological Society met in Atlanta during February in conjunction with the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists annual meeting. Several members of the Department of Plant Pathology were recognized.

UGA's Bhabesh Dutta, graduate student of Ron Walcott, whose committee members include David Langston and Ron Gitaitis from the Tifton Campus, won first place in the student paper competition. The title of his presentation was "Epidemiological relevance of seed detection assay to seedling transmission threshold for bacterial fruit blotch in watermelon."

Bob Kemerait assumed the office of President of sdAPS and will preside at next year's meeting in Orlando, FL. David Langston was selected for vice-president elect, and will serve as president of sdAPS in 2012.

Dr. Jim Todd, UGA Entomology Professor Emeritus was recognized by the Georgia Peanut Commission with the Research and Education Award for his many contributions to peanut research. He shared this award with Dr. Roy Pittman, USDA-ARS in Griffin.

Duncan McClusky, Library, received his third Club Kiwanian of the Year Award having reported 455 volunteer community service hours during the last year in Kiwanis.

Albert Culbreath, Dept. of Plant Pathology, UGA-Tifton Campus, received the Past President’s Award from the American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) at that society’s annual meeting July 14-18, 2008 in Oklahoma City, OK. Albert served as president of APRES from July 2006 to July 2007. Also, Albert Culbreath received a certificate of recognition for service on the Scientific Program Board of the American Phytopathological Society at that society’s annual meeting July 25-31, 2008 in Minneapolis, MN.  Albert served a three year term as Section Chair for Plant Disease Management.

Ye (Juliet) Chu and co-authors Laura Ramos, Corley Holbrook, and Peggy Ozias-Akins received the Bailey Award at the annual meeting of the American Peanut Research and Education Society for the presentation and paper entitled, "Development of Molecular Markers to Facilitate Pyramiding Genetic Traits in Peanut Cultivars."