The Syngenta Award recognizes early career professionals working in the field of plant pathology who have made an outstanding recent contribution to teaching, research, or extension.
Dr. Bhabesh Dutta is a Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology with a three-way Extension (75%), Research (20%), and Service (5%) appointment. As a primarily Extension faculty member, his mission-oriented research program is – by necessity – pulled in many different directions based on emerging needs of the vegetable industry that he serves. Nevertheless, Dutta has been able to develop a remarkably comprehensive and internationally recognized signature research thrust that integrates basic and applied science to understand and manage bacterial diseases of the iconic Vidalia Onion, especially those caused by bacterial Pantoea species (causal agents of center rot disease). This work ranges from bacterial genomic diversity and virulence mechanisms to understanding the biology of vector-borne Pantoea infections and to translating basic research into sustainable disease management practices. Dr. Dutta’s translational research and Extension program has had a major positive impact on the highly diverse, high-value vegetable industry in Georgia and beyond. He is remarkably adept at translating research results into actionable information to fuel his Extension program, including results from fundamental research in host-pathogen interactions.
Dr. Bhabesh Dutta hails from Kolkata, India. Following graduation with a B.S. degree in agricultural science from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, he joined Dr. Ron Walcott's seed pathology program at the University of Georgia (UGA) to work on bacterial fruit blotch of cucurbits. His doctoral research resulted in a series of six peer-reviewed journal articles elucidating the biology of bacterial localization in watermelon seed and its effect on pathogen survival and seed health testing. Upon graduation, he joined Drs. Ron Gitaitis and David Langston's programs working on bacterial diseases of vegetable crops. As a postdoc, Dutta showed that phytobacteria can gain access to host and non-host seeds via flowers. He also showed that phytobacteria can colonize non-host seeds during germination, indicating that this process did not rely on host-specific pathogenicity. This intriguing observation explains how human pathogens, such as Salmonella and E. coli, might proliferate on seedlings and sprouts. During his doctoral and postdoctoral training, Dr. Dutta gained outstanding basic and applied skills, a combination that allows him to conduct highly impactful translational research. In 2015, he was hired as an Assistant Professor (Extension vegetable pathology) at UGA’s Tifton Campus in a challenging three-way appointment (75% Extension, 10% research, 15% instruction). He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2020 and Professor in 2024.
Dr. Dutta’s Extension program focuses on managing the multitude of diseases that affect over 30 different vegetable crops produced in Georgia. Areas of emphasis include Fusarium wilt of watermelon, cucurbit and tomato virus reservoirs, Alternaria blight in brassicas, bacterial spot of pepper, and a complex of bacterial diseases of onion. In only 9 years in his current position, Dr. Dutta has developed a comprehensive and prolific program that has impacted the vegetable industry nationally and resulted in quantifiable outcomes. As an early-career scientist, he has published 103 peer-reviewed papers, given 45 invited research and Extension talks, and published 100 Plant Disease Management Reports, as well as numerous abstracts, proceedings, newspaper and online articles. Two of his peer-reviewed journal articles were selected as Editor’s Pick in Plant Disease and Phytopathology. He is an early adopter of electronic media, having an online vegetable blog with 1846 subscribers and a vegetable disease mobile app with 38,658 downloads. Dutta has directly supervised 15 graduate students, 12 postdocs, and 20 undergraduate students. He is respected as an excellent and patient mentor, and all of his mentees have gone on to successful careers in industry, academia, and Extension.
Dutta has made significant contributions to the basic and applied understanding of bacterial pathogens affecting onions. His contributions include understanding the biology of vector-borne Pantoea infections in onion, deciphering virulence factors, and utilizing them to design diagnostic assays. He also determined how different physiological stages of onion can impact infection and demonstrated that growth stage-targeted sprays can reduce the number of copper bactericide applications, which may add up to $300-350/acre in savings. Leading a team of scientists and Extension agents, Dutta optimized and implemented an IPM program to reduce losses to center rot. This resulted in marketable yield increases of 60 lb/acre, which accounts to an $140/acre gain.
As part of a multistate project, Dr. Dutta demonstrated how cultural practices can impact bacterial bulb rot in onions. His team demonstrated that mechanical harvesting via TopAir harvester reduces storage losses considerably compared with manual harvest. He also showed that manual harvesting resulted in onion bulbs with variable neck length, with those being clipped close to the shoulder having higher levels of bacterial rots in storage. The impacts are substantial as changes in harvest practices or proper training of field workers can result in a four-fold reduction of storage losses.
Dr. Dutta also contributed significantly to our understanding of how micronutrients interact with systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in the Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum-watermelon pathosystem. Using controlled hydroponic experiments, he showed that micronutrient ratios can induce SAR genes, which can impact susceptible vs. resistant responses in the host. In applied research, he evaluated the impact of bed architecture and plastic mulch on fumigant efficacy and the reduction of Fusarium wilt incidence. Bed architecture did not increase the efficacy of fumigation, whereas the type of plastic-mulch affected its efficacy: plots with impermeable film mulch had significantly lower Fusarium wilt than the plots with low-density polyethylene film mulch. The results indicated an increase of 870-3,810 lb/acre in yield, which may account to an additional profit of $174-762/acre.
Dutta’s accomplishments in vegetable pathology have been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Donnie. H. Morris Award for Excellence in Extension (2023) by the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Grower Association, “40 under 40” by Fruit and Vegetable Grower News, the Gary A. Herzog award for Excellence in Research (UGA), the Excellence in Service Award by the Vidalia Onion Committee, and the Michael Bader Excellence Award in Extension (UGA). He also received the Friends of Southern IPM Bright Idea Award, which recognizes extraordinary achievement in research, Extension, and implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the southern United States.
Dr. Dutta has been involved in grants and contracts amounting to $38,593,181 in his career, of which $8,470,009 came directly to his program. He has been the project director on two USDA-NIFA-SCRI grants and on several projects funded by USDA-NIFA-OREI, USDA-NIFA-ORG, USDA-NIFA-MBT, and the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. He is currently serving as an associate editor for multiple journals (Phytopathology, Frontiers in Agronomy, Journal of Phytopathology, Frontiers in Horticulture). Dutta’s APS service includes his current tenure as President-Elect for the APS Southern Division; APS-Liaison to the Indian Phytopathological Society (IPS), associate editor of Phytopathology, editorial board member of Plant Disease Management Reports, and member of the Seed Pathology and Bacteriology Committees.
Dr. Dutta’s translational research and Extension program has had a major positive impact on the highly diverse, high-value vegetable industry in Georgia and beyond. He is remarkably adept at translating research results into actionable information to fuel his Extension program, including results from fundamental research in host-pathogen interactions. As such, he is highly deserving of the Syngenta Award.
