St. Paul, Minn. (September 25, 2008)—The American Phytopathological Society (APS) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2008 awards. The awards were presented during the APS Awards & Honors Ceremony at the APS Centennial Meeting held in Minneapolis, MN.
APS grants the Fellow designation to current members in recognition of distinguished contributions to plant pathology or to the society. The 12 members named APS Fellows are: John Andrews, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Claude Fauquet, ILTAB; Deborah Fravel, USDA-ARS; Dean Gabriel, University of Florida-Gainesville; David Gadoury, Cornell University; Stephen Goodwin, USDA-ARS; Brad Hillman, Rutgers University; Charles Rush, Texas A&M Agriculture Experiment Station; Jonathan Walton, Michigan State University; Michael Wingfield, University of Pretoria; Shyi-Dong Yeh, National Chung Hsing University; and Thomas Zitter, Cornell University.
James MacDonald, University of California-Davis, received the Distinguished Service Award. This award honors APS members who have provided sustained, outstanding leadership to the society, while also furthering the science of plant pathology.
The Excellence in Extension Award was presented to Mary Hausbeck, Michigan State University. This award recognizes excellence in extension plant pathology, honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions by creating, developing, or implementing extension-related programs or materials or who have provided significant leadership in an area of extension plant pathology.
Chris Becker, BAAR Scientific LLC, received the Excellence in Industry Award. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to plant pathology by APS members whose primary employment involves work outside the university and federal realms either for profit or nonprofit.
Mike Boehm, Ohio State University, received the Excellence in Teaching Award. This award recognizes excellence in teaching plant pathology.
The International Service Award was given to Randy Ploetz, University of Florida. This award honors outstanding contributions to plant pathology by APS members for a country other than their own.
The Ruth Allen Award was given to Peter Nagy, University of Kentucky. This award honors individuals who have made an outstanding, innovative research contribution that has changed, or has the potential to change, the direction of research in any field of plant pathology.
The William Boright Hewitt and Maybelle Ellen Ball Hewitt Award was presented to Pierce Paul, Ohio State University. This award recognizes a scientist within five years of receiving their Ph.D. degree who has made an outstanding, innovative contribution to the control of plant disease.
Brett Tyler, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, received the Noel T. Keen Award for Research in Molecular Plant Pathology. This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions in host–pathogen interactions, plant pathogens or plant-associated microbes, or molecular biology of disease development or defense mechanisms.
The Syngenta Award was presented to Seogchan Kang, Penn State University. Syngenta gives this award to honor an APS member for an outstanding recent contribution to teaching, research, or extension in plant pathology.
Full descriptions of each of the awardees are available on APSnet. APS is a nonprofit, professional scientific organization. The research of the organization’s more than 5,000 worldwide members advances the understanding of the science of plant pathology and its application to plant health.
