Awards
2020 Award Winners
Our department is filled with many great faculty and staff, who we love to recognize for their achievments.
“The society grants this honor to a current APS member in recognition of distinguished contributions to plant pathology or to The American Phytopathological Society. Fellow recognition is based on significant contributions in one or more of the following areas: original research, teaching, administration, professional and public service, and/or extension and outreach.” – American Phytopathological Society, 2020
We are fortunate to have many of our faculty recognized as Fellows within our department:
2019 Award Winners
Valeria Velasquez-Zapata and Pulkit Kanodia were awarded the Brown Graduate Fellowship for 2019-2020. They are two of twelve students from across Iowa State University (ISU) to receive the award of $10,000 each.
2018 Award Winners
A soybean rust video produced under the scientific and editorial guidance of Thomas Baum, Daren Mueller and Steven Whitham, plant pathology and microbiology, has been selected by the international World Media Festival jury to receive an Intermedia-Globe Silver Award.
2017 Award Winners
Plant Pathology & Microbiology Professor Allen Miller was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for “distinguished contributions to the field of plant virology, particularly in the areas of genome organizations, RNA translation, replication and movement mechanisms, and vector interactions.”
Congratulations to Dr. Mitch Elmore (right) for his success in the FY2016 Postdoctoral Fellowship Competition from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) - Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Human Sciences Education and Literacy Initiative.
Congratulations to Priyanka Surana for her Research Excellence Award from the ISU Graduate College. Priyanka graduated in Spring/Summer 2017 with a PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology with a minor in Statistics under the direction of Roger Wise and Dan Nettleton.
Gregory Fuerst, a member of the Roger Wise’s Lab, was selected as the 2017 Midwest Area Award Recipient in the Scientific Support category "for exceptional scientific support and contributions to the ARS research programs".
Dr. Allen Miller and Dr. Steve Whitham received a four-year multi-institutional grant ($10.3 million) funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Drs. Leonor Leandro, Larry Halverson, Gwyn Beattie, and Matt Liebman received a new grant from NIFAAFRI-
foundational Knowledge of Agricultural Production Systems on April 1, 2017.
Dr. Nancy Boury received a 3-year (2017-2020) grant of $182,812 from NSF Division of Undergraduate Education program (DUE). DUE's programs are intended to strengthen STEM education at two- and four-year colleges and universities by improving curricula, instruction, laboratories, infrastructure, assessment, diversity of students and faculty, and collaborations.
ISU researchers are piecing together the genetic mechanisms that link plant growth and stress response. In a new paper, the research group links autophagy, an important energy recycling function, with slower growth during stress conditions. Autophagy plays a key role in animals as well as plants.
2016 Award Winners
An interdisciplinary collaboration between Dr. Santosh Pandey (Electrical Engineering) and Dr. Gregory Tylka (Plant Pathology) was recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Instrument Development for Biological Research (IDBR) grant to develop an automated machine for soybean cyst nematode identification.
Cassandra (Cassie) Wattenburger, a PhD student working with Dr. Larry Halverson, was recently awarded a highly competitive Fellowship from the 2016 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Faculty and Staff Awards
Four members in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology were recently recognized by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences here at Iowa state University. These awards are given annually for outstanding faculty and staff.
2015 Award Winners
Dr. Sally Mallowa, who recently completed her PhD in the department studying with Dr. Alison Robertson, was recently involved in an effort to develop a teaching tool and extension workshop in Kenya and Uganda this summer. The team came from five different institutions, and was funded by a Global Experience Award from the APS Office of International Programs. The teaching component focused on developing a case study resource for learning about cassava brown streak virus disease (CBSD).
Thomas Baum, chair of the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, is this year’s recipient of the Noel T. Keen Award for Research Excellence in Molecular Plant Pathology from the American Phytopathological Society. The award recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contributions and demonstrated sustained excellence and leadership in research. Baum was cited for pioneering contributions that have greatly advanced the understanding and knowledge of the molecular interactions of nematodes with host plants.
Sally Mallowa is a final year PhD candidate in Alison Robertson’s Lab. She is the 2015 recipient of the APS – Office of International programs, Global Experience Award in the amount of $4,000, in support of her multi-national extension and teaching proposal
Aurelie Rakotondrafara, faculty member at University of Wisconsin and an ISU alumna, wins the co-winner of the innovation of the year awarded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. For more information: http://www.plantpath.wisc.edu/two-cals-research-teams-win-warf-innovatio...