Phytopathology News

Congratulations to John H. Andrews, elected vice president (to serve as president in 2005–2006), and Allison H. Tally, elected councilor-at-large for a three-year term. Both will begin their terms at the end of the 2003 APS Annual Meeting.

Andrews is professor and chair of the Plant Pathology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tally is technical brand manager–fungicides for Syngenta Crop Protection.

Complete biographic sketches, as well as personal statements of leadership submitted by the new officers, appeared in the May 2003 issue of Phytopathology News (Vol. 37, No. 5:60-63).

This year’s ballot also included a proposed amendment to the APS constitution. The amendment addressed concerns brought forward by APS students regarding the student membership criteria. The change was approved by the membership. The adjustment removes the five year limit for student membership and accommodates working students better by eliminating the “not gainfully employed more than two-thirds time” limitation in an effort to encourage increased participation from student members.

Online Registration Now Available!

Visit http://www.apsnet.org/meetings/2003/registration.htm
to register for the 2003 APS Annual Meeting online!

The APS Annual Meeting is only a few weeks away. If you haven’t registered and are thinking about it, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible. See page 98 of this issue of Phytopathology News for details on networking and professional development opportunities that will be available at the meeting. See you in Charlotte!

Pan American Conference Draws International Attendees to South Texas

More than 250 scientists from as far away as Argentina, France, and Spain converged on South Padre Island, TX, April 6–11, to attend the Pan American Plant Disease Conference. The conference, deemed a huge success by organizers, combined the 42nd annual meeting of the APS Caribbean Division, the 82nd annual meeting of the APS Southern Division, the 12th Congress of the Latin American Association of Phytopathology, and the 30th national and 5th International Congress of the Mexican Phytopathological Society.

Marvin Miller, a vegetable plant pathologist at the Texas A&M Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco, and chair of the local arrangement committee, said the conference was the first of its kind for the Western Hemisphere. For example, the APS Caribbean Division usually teams with another plant protection-related group in the country where it meets. This conference is unique in that four separate phytopathological societies, which normally meet annually on their own, came together for the first time to meet at one conference.

Rafael Jiménez Díaz, Institute of Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Córdoba, Spain, gave the inaugural keynote address. He discussed the rise of secondary problems associated with modern food production practices and the increased interest in sustainable forms of agriculture and how plant disease scientists will play a role. The goal now is to maintain the intense production of food products and satisfy the public demand for food without harming the soil, air, water, and everything that makes up our environment, said Jímenez.

The conference, conducted in both English and Spanish, included preconference workshops followed by three days of talks, poster presentations, and symposia. A total of 330 abstracts and posters were submitted and published courtesy of the Mexican Society of Phytopathology as part of the proceedings. Elisa Brodbeck, a professional translator from Baton Rouge, LA, donated her services free of charge throughout the three-day conference.

José Amador, president of both the APS Caribbean Division and the Latin American Association of Phytopathology and center director of the Texas A&M Agricultural Research and Extension Center, played a key role in organizing the conference. He was presented with the Caballero de Oro Award (Golden Knight Award) from the Latin American Society of Phytopathology for his many contributions to phytopathology throughout Latin America during his long and illustrious career.

Amador said he was indebted to many for their selfless efforts in making the conference a success, but in particular to the other two presidents, Barbara Smith and Gustavo Mora, the division councilors Judith Brown, APS Caribbean Division and Albert Culbreath, APS Pacific Division, and to the executive committee members of all the societies. People from all over the world made huge sacrifices to attend, both financial and logistical, because its not easy to obtain paperwork to come to the United States. Nora Gracia was one of several especially recognized for their efforts in putting the program together.

Of the several very successful and well-attended preconference workshops, one was devoted entirely to the diagnosis of plant diseases. Larry Barnes did an outstanding job serving as its organizer, assisted by Tom Cresswall, Malcolm Shurtleff, Ron Brlansky, and Bill Dolezal. Special recognition went to Dolezal, Pioneer Hi-Breds, a DuPont Company, and to the staff in Weslaco for making the diagnostics workshop such a huge success, said Amador. They made their facilities at Weslaco available to the workshop, where they highlighted their ability to link international offices together to assist them in solving problems using their distance diagnosis capabilities. Pioneer also hosted the lunch for all participants in the three workshops conducted on Saturday.

Amador said the conference featured many hot topics that were of particular interest. “We discussed several important issues, including the valid concerns people may have about gene transfer, the comparison of different regulations that countries have on biotechnology, and labeling issues. Also, the information we learned about both persistent and emerging diseases was very important.”

Among the many contemporary diseases discussed was cotton root rot, a disease that was foremost on the minds of those who established the Texas A&M system of research and extension more than 100 years ago. A century later, it’s still a problem, Amador said. “We had excellent symposiums on tobacco diseases, Citrus tristeza virus, and soybean rust. Some of these diseases are not yet found in all countries, so the exchange of information is critical.”

Part of the conference involved the creation of a network of scientists to track diseases moving from country to country. It is hard to judge just how important this type of networking will be in the future, Amador said, so I’m glad we got that started.

Cash awards were given at the conference for best student paper presentations, as well as a $1,000 award presented by the Spanish Society of Phytopathology and a $500 award presented by the Buckman Company to a student or young scientist. In addition, there were three cash awards presented by Agdia to the best three poster presentations. Twelve student travel awards of $400 each (three to each of the four societies represented at the conference) were presented to facilitate attendance by students and young scientists from the United States and Latin America.

During the Awards Ceremony, Robert McMillan, Jr., University of Florida, Homestead, received the 2003 Frederick L. Wellman Award, the highest distinction presented by the APS Caribbean Division. A strong supporter of the Caribbean Division, attending almost all of its meetings, McMillan is a prominent plant pathologist who has worked from many years in South Florida and in many countries in Latin America. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in botany at the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. degree in plant pathology at Washington State University. He has worked at the Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead since 1967. McMillan is a major contributor in the development of methyl bromide-chloropicrin mixtures as a soil fumigant and has been the leader in Miami-Dade County in the quest for fumigants to replace methyl bromide. He is also an expert diagnostician and was responsible for the establishment of the Extension Plant Diagnostic Clinic. Throughout his career, McMillan has been very sensitive to the needs of growers of tropical fruit, ornamental, and vegetable crops, not only in Florida, but in at least 30 other countries, having been involved in numerous USAID-funded development assistance projects.

Conference contributors included: USDA-ARS; USDA-CSREES; The American Phytopathological Society; the Spanish Society of Phytopathology; Pioneer Hi-Breds, Inc., a DuPont Company; Bayer CropScience; Buckman Laboratories: T-Systems; CIMMYT; Agriculture University of Chapingo, Mexico; Dow AgroSciences; Autonomous University of Mexico; Grupo Bioquímico Mexicano; Ingeniería Industrial; the State of Tamaulipas; Agdia, Inc.; School of Postgraduates, Montecillo, Mexico; INIFAP, Mexico; Seminis; South Padre Island Convention Center; Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco; Texas A&M University-Kingsville Citrus Center; and the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes. The staff at the Radisson Resort in South Padre Island, the conference venue, provided outstanding service, while helping the conference unfold smoothly.

John da Graca, a conference organizer and deputy director at the Texas A&M-Kingsville Citrus Center at Weslaco, said the interaction and exchange of information at the conference was invaluable. The networking, dialog, exchange of views, links, and collaborations made here will benefit agriculture for years to come, he said.

Hot Dates! Hot Topics
in Plant Pathology!

Don't miss this opportunity to discuss these hot topics and more with fellow plant health professionals!

The National Plant Pest and Disease Diagnostics Network (NP2D2N): A Federal - State Partnership for Homeland Security
New Functional Genomics Approaches to Plant Pathology Research
Oak Disease Threats Worldwide

For information on the program, registration, and housing materials please log on to www.apsnet.org/meetings/2003. For exhibit and advertising information please contact Rhonda Wilkie at +1.651.994.3820.

The American Phytopathological Society
Annual Meeting
August 9-13, 2003
Charlotte, North Carolina

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Andrews and Tally Elected as New APS Officers, Student Criteria Change Approved

Online Registration Now Available!

Pan American Conference Draws International Attendees to South Texas