Awards
2022 Award Winners
Aline Sartor Chicowski, a doctoral candidate in Plant Pathology with a minor in Genetics, under the supervision of Dr. Steven Whitham, was selected for the 2022 Corteva DELTA Symposium held in Indianapolis (Aug 1-3) at the Corteva world headquarters. Aline is also a recipient of the 2022 DELTA research grant.
Professor W. Allen Miller has been appointed as the plant virus Editor for the Journal of Virology.
Dr. Miller will be responsible for all manuscripts involving plant viruses, RNA viruses of insects, as well as papers on certain human RNA viruses such as Zika and related viruses.
Journal of Virology, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology, is generally regarded as the top virology journal dedicated entirely to original, basic research papers on all types of viruses.
The Soybean Cyst Nematode Coalition’s public relations campaign to move more soybean farmers to actively manage the soybean cyst nematode (SCN) was the recipient of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) prestigious Silver Anvil Award in the “Issues Management” category. For more than 75 years, the Silver Anvil has been considered an icon of the communications profession. The award ceremony, held in New York City’s Edison Ballroom on May 19, 2022, recognized and honored the best communications and public relations campaigns from around the country.
Aline Sartor Chicowski was recently selected as a 2022 ASPB Recognition Travel Award recipient. This award will cover all expenses at the American Society of Plant Biologists conference scheduled for July 9 - 13, 2022 in Portland, Oregon.
AMES, Iowa – Three faculty members in Iowa State University’s Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology have been recognized by the American Phytopathological Society for their contributions and impacts in research, teaching and extension.
Maya Hayslett, crop science youth education specialist in plant pathology and microbiology, is the recipient of the Professional and Scientific Outstanding New Professional Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University.
Yuba Kandel, research scientist in plant pathology and microbiology, is the recipient of the Professional and Scientific Research Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University.
The Soynomics Team is the recipient of the Team Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University. Team members include: Asheesh (Danny) Singh and Arti Singh, agronomy; Baskar Ganapathysubramanian and Soumik Sarkar, mechanical engineering; Daren Mueller and Greg Tylka, plant pathology and microbiology; and Matt O’Neal, entomology.
The Entomology and PLPM departments are proud to celebrate Mark Gleason (PLPM) and John VanDyk (ENT) for their 25 years of service at Iowa State University. Mark and John join 66 other faculty and staff who hit the 25 year mark in 2021 and are invited to the 25 Year Club gathering and dinner next week. Thanks and congratulations to Mark and John for their contributions!
Lemper-Manahl, an associate teaching professor of plant pathology and microbiology, has recently become a part of a new program designed to forge faculty and staff connections with the Student Innovation Center (SICTR). She's one of the eight faculty and staff selected as an SICTR consulting innovator, a roster of diverse ISU experts who are collaborating with the center to develop and deliver innovation programming, events and industry-sponsored experiences for students.
2021 Award Winners
Dr. Nancy Boury was recently chosen as the recipient of the 2022 Carski Award for Undergraduate Education from the American Society of Microbiology! This award recognizes an educator for outstanding teaching of microbiology to undergraduate students and for encouraging them to subsequent achievement.
Assistant Teaching Professor, Claudia Lemper-Manahl, earns University recognition for teaching in Fall 2020.
2020 Award Winners
Our department is filled with many great faculty and staff, who we love to recognize for their achievements.
“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.