Allison Tally received her degrees from Tulane, Texas A&M, and Auburn. She began her career as a field representative in the Southeast with Ciba-Geigy. Dr. Tally then moved to the headquarters in North Carolina where she has held positions managing and directing the research, planning, and strategic development of new fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides. Key among her accomplishments is the development of fludioxonil, better known as Maxim and Medallion, and acibenzolar which is Actigard, the first commercial product to protect against diseases by systemic activated resistance. Something that is not generally seen by her external peers is that she has overseen the demise of several very efficacious compounds. Dr. Tally works with the new and the old. She leads the team for reregistration of propiconazole and works closely with headquarters in Switzerland to ensure important pathosystems in NAFTA are in the screen. She has been a member of various FRAC teams to develop fungicide resistance strategies.
During her 20-year career in industry, she has been an active member of APS, giving presentations and serving on several committees. She has served as president of Southern Division APS and is currently president of the Plant Pathology Society of North Carolina. She has been an APS Press Editor and convinced Syngenta to be a sponsor for the new electronic journal Plant Health Progress. Dr. Tally’s goals are to help growers produce better yields and better quality crops with products and practices that promote long-term viability and environmental stewardship.
