This year, a new award was established to recognize an outstanding young investigator for research in the area of molecular plant-microbe interactions, to be presented at the IS-MPMI Congress. The new IS-MPMI Young Investigator Award for 2016 was given to Dong Wang, a faculty member of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Wang received his Ph.D. training with Dr. Xinnian Dong at Duke University, and conducted postdoctoral research with Dr. Sharon Long at Stanford University. Currently he studies the symbiotic interactions between plants and beneficial microbes.