Faculty Research Interests

The department is recognized internationally for its comprehensive and integrative research portfolio, spanning basic, translational and applied programs. The breadth and depth of these programs is summarized in the following table.  


Etiology, Epidemiology, and Disease Management

Bochra Bahri - turfgrass and forage pathology

Phil Brannen – fruit disease management         

Tim Brenneman – pecan and soilborne peanut diseases

Clive Bock (adjunct) – fruit and nut research  

James Buck – diseases of soybean, wheat and ornamentals

Intiaz Chowdhury – vegetable and cotton nematology

Albert Culbreath – foliar peanut diseases and Tomato spotted wilt virus

Richard Davis (adjunct) – nematode management

Bhabesh Dutta – vegetable disease management

Ganpati Jagdale – nematode diagnostics

Bob Kemerait – peanut and cotton disease management

Md Sultan Mahmud – precision crop protection

Alfredo Martinez-Espinoza – turfgrass and small grains disease management

Jonathan Oliver – fruit disease management

Harald Scherm – fruit disease epidemiology

Paul Severns - plant disease epidemiology  

Jean Williams-Woodward – diseases of ornamentals, commercial landscapes and forestryEtiology, Epidemiology, and Disease Management 

 


Pathogen Biology and Ecology

Sudeep Bag – crop virology and virus management  

Marin Brewer – mycology and fungal population biology

Anny Chung - belowground plant ecology and microbial interactions

Babu Srinivasan (adjunct) – vector-virus-plant interactions

Patricia Timper (adjunct) – nematology

Ron Walcott – bacteriology and seed pathology

Plant-Microbe Interactions and Host Resistance

Soraya Bertioli – peanut genomics and disease resistance

Chang-Hyun Khang (adjunct) – cellular plant-fungal interactions

Brian Kvitko – plant immunity and molecular bacteriology

Alejandra Maria Jimenez Madrid - molecular diagnosis of plant pathogens and detection of antimicrobial resistance

Melissa Mitchum - plant-nematode interactions

Shavannor Smith – structure and evolution of host resistance

Caterina Villari (adjunct) - interactions among trees, fungal pathogens and insect herbivores, chemical ecology  

Li Yang – plant development and defense

Mycotoxicology and Fungal Genetics

Renee Arias (adjunct) – peanut mycotoxin mitigation

Charles Bacon (adjunct) – microbial endophytes

Anthony Glenn (adjunct) – genetics of Fusarium

Scott Gold (adjunct) – fungal genetics

Baozhu Guo (adjunct) – disease and mycotoxin resistance in corn and peanut