Dr. Richard (Mack) Riedel's area of expertise is plant nematology. His early work resulted in several first reports of plant parasitic nematodes for a variety of crops in Ohio. He devoted several years to potato "early dying disease," a serious problem resulting from the interaction beteween the fungus Verticillium dahliae and the root lesion nematode Pratylenchulus penetrans. In the mid-1980s, his work expanded to include fungal diseases of vegetables, and in the early 1990s, focused on what was at the time an emerging problem, soybean cyst nematode.
Reidel served as a USAID consultant in Asia, Africa and South America. Now retired, Dr. Riedel resides in central Ohio and occasionally guest lectures in department courses.
