Click on faculty name to view individual program websites.

Michael J. Boehm Professor and Department Chair

Integrated management of fungal turfgrass pathogens with emphasis on biological control, microbial ecology, and molecular biology of turfgrass-microbe interactions.

E-mail boehm.1@osu.edu
Department Chair office: 201A Kottman Hall, Columbus
Tel. (614) 292-8038

Pierluigi (Enrico) Bonello Associate Professor

Ecological role of tree diseases; chemical ecology of tree/fungal pathogen/insect interactions; systemic disease and insect resistance induced in trees by fungal pathogens; soil type and soil management regime effects on mycorrhizal community structure of trees in simulated urban environments; emerging pathogens and insect pests of trees (Sudden Oak Death pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, and the emerald ash borer).

E-mail bonello.2@osu.edu
Office: 483C Kottman Hall, Columbus
Tel. (614) 688-5401

David L. Coplin Professor

Bacterial pathogens of plants; molecular biology of plant bacteria interactions; molecular genetics of pathogenicity in Pantoea stewartii, synthesis of bacterial polysaccharides, type-III (Hrp) secretion systems, and prokaryotic gene regulation.

E-mail coplin.3@osu.edu
Office: 483B Kottman Hall, Columbus
Tel. (614) 292-8503

Anne E. Dorrance Associate Professor

Management systems for soybean diseases; evaluation of soybean populations/cultivars for resistance to Phytophthora sojae and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum; evaluation of seed treatments for Rhizoctonia solani and Phytophthora sojae; evaluation of fungicides for soybean rust management and impact on yield; cultural practices and impact on disease development.

E-mail dorrance.1@osu.edu
Office: 118 Selby Hall, Wooster
Tel. (330) 202-3560

Michael A. Ellis Professor

Epidemiology, etiology and ecology of fungal plant pathogens of fruit crops; developing of disease forecasting systems for these fruit pathogens; development of disease management practices for tree fruits and small fruits, including grapes and strawberries.

E-mail ellis.7@osu.edu
Office: 224 Selby Hall, Wooster
Tel. (330) 263-3849

Terrence L. Graham Professor

Molecular, cellular and genetic characterization of the cell-to-cell and intracellular signaling processes that regulate deployment of soybean defense responses; role of HR cell death in activating two forms of defense priming, elicitation competence and distal defense potentiation; RNAi gene silencing for functional analysis of soybean defense and defense signaling genes; metabolomic approaches for discovery of novel plant natural products that activate defense priming.

E-mail graham.1@osu.edu
Office: 477C Kottman Hall, Columbus
Tel. (614) 292-1789

Dennis J. Lewandowski Assistant Professor

Diseases of ornamentals and landscape plants; plant virology; disease resistance, particularly virus resistance in plants; plant health management issues for commercial operations; Hosta Virus X, Tobacco Mosaic Virus, tobamoviruses and other diseases of importance to the ornamental/landscape industry.

E-mail lewandowski.49@osu.edu
Office: 475C Kottman Hall, Columbus
Tel. (614) 292-1293

Laurence V. Madden Professor and Associate Chair

Plant disease epidemiology, pathogen ecology, disease modeling and statistical analysis, and crop loss assessment; fungal diseases of fruit crops and other diseases, with the goals of determining the influence of climate and environment on disease dynamics, and developing disease management strategies based on epidemiological theory and experimentation.

E-mail madden.1@osu.edu
Office: 226 Selby Hall, Wooster, OH
Tel. (330) 263-3833
Associate Chair's Office: 106 Selby Hall, Wooster
Tel. (330) 263-3839

Brian McSpadden Gardener Associate Professor

Soil microbial ecology as it relates to plant health, especially biological control of plant diseases; molecular characterization of the diversity and population dynamics of plant-associated microbes, especially Pseudomonas and Bacillus spp. that suppress fungal root pathogens.

E-mail mcspadden-garden.1@osu.edu

Office: 214 Selby Hall, Wooster
Tel. (330) 202-3565

Sally A. Miller Professor

Sustainable, integrated management approaches for vegetable crop diseases; ecology and transmission of bacterial and phytoplasmal diseases. Bacterial pathogens of peppers and tomatoes; detection and characterization of aster yellows phytoplasma strains in lettuce; development of highly specific molecular markers for detection and quantitation of a microorganism inducing resistance to foliar pathogens.

E-mail miller.769@osu.edu
Office: 227 Selby Hall, Wooster
Tel. (330) 263-3678

Thomas K. Mitchell Assistant Professor

Fungal biology and parasitism with an emphasis on using modern tools and techniques in molecular biology, genomics, and proteomics to elucidate the molecular underpinnings of virulence.

Graduate student assistantship is available to work in a new research program at OSU (Columbus) under the direction of Dr. Thomas Mitchell. Research will involve using genomic and bioinformatics approaches to guide the studies of the molecular underpinnings of fungal virulence of plants. Students will characterize genes predicted to be involved in virulence for Alternaria species using modern molecular and genomic techniques. Students majoring in plant pathology, genetics, microbiology, or related disciplines are encouraged to apply.

For more information contact Dr. Thomas K. Mitchell:

E-mail mitchell.815@osu.edu
Office: 481B Kottman Hall, Columbus
Tel. (614) 292-1728

Pierce A. Paul Assistant Professor

Biology, epidemiology, and integrated management of corn and wheat diseases, including Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat, powdery mildew, and Stagonospora blotch of wheat. Also: disease forecasting system for FHB of wheat; characterization of the resistance of commonly-cultivated corn hybrids to northern corn leaf blight (NCLB); determination of the race structure of the NCLB pathogen in Ohio; and development of risk-based management decision-making tools for important foliar diseases of corn (gray leaf spot and northern corn leaf blight) and wheat (Stagonospora blotch and powdery mildew).

E-mail paul.661@osu.edu
Office: 105 Selby Hall, Wooster
Tel. (330) 263-3824

Feng Qu (to join the Department of Plant Pathology as Assistant Professor in October 2008)

Molecular plant virology, plant antiviral defenses, including RNA silencing and Resistance gene-mediated defense; interactions between different plant gene products (eg. DCLs, AGOs, and RDRs); and engineering virus resistance in crop plants by enhancing antiviral RNA silencing.

Current e-mail: fqu@unlserve.unl.edu
Dr. Qu will be based in Selby Hall, Wooster

Dr. Redinbaugh is a Research Leader and Research Plant Molecular Geneticist at the USDA/ARS Corn and Soybean Research Unit in Wooster. Her primary research interest is identify and elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the genetic and biological bases of virus resistance and tolerance in maize. Current approaches to understanding the molecular basis of virus resistance include projects to define the maize response to virus infection at the molecular level, to identify, map and isolate maize genes encoding virus resistance, and to characterize virus replication and distribution of viruses in resistant and susceptible maize germplasm.

E-mail redinbaugh.2@osu.edu
026 Selby Hall, Wooster
Tel. (330) 263-3965

Landon H. Rhodes Associate Professor

Pathological factors which affect establishment and persistence of forage crops, particularly alfalfa. Applied studies are aimed at developing improved procedures for diagnosis and control of selected fungal diseases. Rhodes serves as the Undergraduate Studies Chair.

E-mail rhodes.2@osu.edu
Office: 475B Kottman Hall, Columbus
Tel. (614) 292-7717

Guo-Liang Wang Associate Professor

Molecular and Genomics of Plant-Microbe Interactions. Mechanism of plant-pathogen interactions and the signal transduction pathways leading to the induction of disease resistance responses. Both genetic and genomic approaches are used with rice as the model system. Also: novel genomics tools and resources for functional analysis of the rice and maize genomes.

Lab URL: http://plantpath.osu.edu/~wang/

E-mail wang.620@osu.edu
Office: 481C Kottman Hall, Columbus
Tel. (614) 292-9280