St. Paul, Minn. (October 3, 2008)—The American Phytopathological Society (APS) Foundation presented several monetary awards at the society's centennial meeting held July 27–30, 2008, in Minneapolis, MN.
The Lucy Hastings de Gutiérrez Fund for Excellence in Teaching was presented to Michael J. Boehm, Ohio State University.
Brett M. Tyler, with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, received the Noel T. Keen Award for Research in Molecular Plant Pathology.
Randy C. Ploetz, University of Florida, received the JANE International Service Award. This award is given to the recipient of the APS International Service Award.
The JANE Research Awards were given to Kurt Lamour, University of Tennessee, and Gary Secor, North Dakota State University. Nancy P. Castilla, International Rice Research Institute, received the International Travel Award. This fund, established with the Office of International Programs, supports the travel costs for early- to mid-career international APS members associated with participation in an APS annual meeting.
The Frank L. Howard Undergraduate Fellowships were awarded to Alicia Owens, Iowa State University, and Rachel Zoe Blumhagen, Western Washington University. These funds are awarded to students in support of undergraduate research projects in plant pathology.
The 8th I.E. Melhus Graduate Student Symposium Awards, sponsored by the APS Epidemiology Committee, were given to support student speakers at the APS Annual Meeting. Students presented on the symposium entitled “Forty-Five Years after Van Der Plank, New Visions for the Future of Plant Disease Epidemiology.” This year awardees included: Emmanuel Byamukama, Iowa State University; Felix Cervantes, University of Idaho; Alexandre Furtado Silveira Mello, Oklahoma State University; and Michelle Moyer, Cornell University.
Additionally, travel assistance awards were presented to 47 students. These awards are designed to help students studying in the field of plant pathology present their work, either in an oral or poster presentation, at the APS annual meeting. The 2008 student travel awards included: Roberto Sierra, Universidad de los Andes; Santiago Mideros, Cornell University; Anissa Poleatewich, Pennsylvania State University; Nathan Kleczewski, The Ohio State University; Valdir Correa, The Ohio State University; Robert Cating, University of Florida; Renuka Attanayake, Washington State University; Lu Liu, Iowa State University; Ismael Badillo-Vargas, University of Wisconsin; Olufemi Alabi, Washington State University; Luisa Fernanda Castiblanco Mosos, Universidad de los Andes; Gautam Shirsekar, The Ohio State University; Maria Newcomb, University of Wisconsin; Hye-Sook Kim, University of Wisconsin; Kathleen Martin, University of Kentucky; Marin Brewer, Cornell University; Kari Perez, Cornell University; Murat Seyran, University of Georgia; Katelyn Willyerd, The Pennsylvania State University; Angela Nelson, Cornell University; Emily Helliwell, The Pennsylvania State University; Evans Njambere, Washington State University; Barrett Gruber, University of Wisconsin; Jonathan Oliver, Cornell University; Flavio Medeiros, Texas Tech University; Jeremy Haralson, University of Georgia; Kaveh Ghanbarnia, University of Manitoba; Brooke Edmunds, North Carolina State University; Jeremiah Dung, Washington State University; Dongping Wang, University of Illinois; Eugene Mumma, Louisiana State University; Zhenyu Liu, University of Wisconsin; Jennifer Jirak, University of Wisconsin; Courtney Gallup, North Carolina State University; Faith Bartz, North Carolina State University; Pattavipha Songkumarn, The Ohio State University; Jessica Ciomperlik, Texas A&M University; Emmanuel Byamukama, Iowa State University; Hun Kim, Purdue University; Katherine Mills-Lujan, University of Georgia; Xiulan Xu, The Ohio State University; Maria Antonia Henriquez, University of Manitoba; Amber Lorge, Texas A&M University; Brian Freeman, Iowa State University; Joseph Young, Mississippi State University; Chia-Lin Chung, Cornell University; and Cheng-Hua Huang, University of Florida.
The American Phytopathological Society (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.
