Team IS-MPMI

Xueping Zhou, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, is a 2018 Fellow of The American Phytopathological Society (APS). This honor recognizes distinguished contributions to plant pathology in one or more of the following areas: original research, teaching, administration, professional and public service, and extension and outreach. Xueping Zhou, center, receives the…

​Barbara S. Valent, Kansas State University (KSU), is the 2018 winner of the APS Noel T. Keen Award. The Keen Award recognizes research excellence in molecular plant pathology. Nominees have made outstanding contributions and demonstrated sustained excellence and leadership in research that significantly advances the understanding of molecular aspects of…

Howard S. Judelson, University of California at Riverside, is a 2018 Fellow of The American Phytopathological Society (APS). This honor recognizes distinguished contributions to plant pathology in one or more of the following areas: original research, teaching, administration, professional and public service, and extension and outreach. Howard S. Judelson, center,…

Melania Figueroa, University of Minnesota, is the 2018 recipient of the APS Syngenta Award. This award is given by Syngenta Crop Protection to an APS member for an outstanding recent contribution to teaching, research, or extension in plant pathology. Priority for this award is given to APS members who are…

IS-MPMI member Pierre de Wit is the 2018 recipient of the Jakob Eriksson Prize, awarded by the International Society of Plant Pathology at the International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP2018). The Eriksson Prize is the highest international honor for achievement in plant pathology. Established in 1923, the prize encourages creative…

Two years have passed since the highly successful and scientifically stimulating XVII International Congress on Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions in Portland in 2016, and it is almost 1 more year to go until IS-MPMI XVIII convenes in Glasgow, Scotland, on July 14–18, 2019. This long period makes you wonder what IS-MPMI…

This InterView with Pamela C. Ronald, University of California, was performed by one of the 2016 IS-MPMI student travel awardees, Gazala Ameen, North Dakota State University. Gazala Ameen (GA): Dr. Ronald, your work and efforts to connect lab to land is a role model for many budding scientists. What is…

— By Sophien Kamoun with contributions from LFCats On a cloudy Norwich day in 2011, post-docs Sebastian Schornack, Sylvain Raffaele, and Tolga Bozkurt were having a typical British lunch of fish and chips with mushy peas with their supervisor Sophien Kamoun. Somehow, the discussion turned to the importance of sustained…

This year’s Annual Meeting of The American Phytopathological Society was held in San Antonio, TX, on August 5–9. As someone whose research program is based primarily on studying molecular plant-microbe interactions, I have always found that the science presented at the APS Annual Meeting is more focused on the applied…

Thomas J. Baum Iowa State University What area(s) of molecular plant-microbe interactions do you feel your research has impacted most? I think our work and that of our collaborators was instrumental in bringing plant nematology into the next phase of research questions and approaches. We led plant nematology awayfrom pure…

Andrew F. Bent University of Wisconsin – Madison What area(s) of molecular plant-microbe interactions do you feel your research has impacted most? From my early days, it would have to be developing and popularizing Arabidopsis and Pseudomonas syringae as experimental models for plant pathology research and discovering thatR genes encode…

Yong-Hwan Lee Seoul National University What area(s) of molecular plant-microbe interactions do you feel your research has impacted most? My research group has been undertaking comprehensive and integrative approaches to understand the molecular and genomic basis of fungal pathogenesis in the rice blast fungus. Wealso developed a powerful bioinformatics platform…

Hailing Jin University of California What area(s) of molecular plant-microbe interactions do you feel your research has impacted most? I think my research has the most impact on the areas of cross-kingdom RNAi and how this affects host-pathogen communications and of small RNA and epigenetics-mediated regulationin plant-pathogen interactions. What advice…

A new whitepaper published in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, entitled “Foundational and Translational Research Opportunities to Improve Plant Health,” offers a detailed accounting of deliberations at a recent workshop focused on the various biotic challenges to maintaining plant health. This fully open-access paper provides an outline and an accounting of the…

We are pleased to announce that the next iteration of the IS-MPMI Congress will take place among the beautiful vistas only found in Scotland. During July 14–18, 2019, you will be able to interact with your molecular plant-microbe interactions community from around the world. Witness the majesty and history of…

The International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP) is an exciting global event that takes place once every five years. In 2018, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., will host plant health scientists from around the world from July 29 to August 3. Leading experts from around the world will present the latest advances…

Welcome to the new IS-MPMI Interactions issue format! This enhanced publication, updated quarterly, will provide members with a glimpse of topic research developments, current events, opinions, and career opportunities. We are hopeful that Interactions will become a forum for serious (and occasionally less-than-serious) thoughts that stimulate new interactions between members….

Dennis Halterman Research Geneticist USDA/ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit Madison, WI U.S.A. Joined IS-MPMI in 2001 Current/past positions: EIC of IS-MPMI Interactions 2017-present Dennis’s research is focused on identifying and characterizing disease resistance genes from wild species relatives of cultivated potato. His research involves a wide range of disciplines that…

This InterView with Sophien Kamoun, John Innes Centre, was performed by one of the 2016 IS-MPMI student travel awardees, Jixiang Kong, Gregor Mendel Institute. JIXIANG KONG: What led you to study biology? More specifically plant-pathogen interactions. SOPHIEN KAMOUN: I grew up with a passion for nature. As a teenager I…

By Dennis Halterman, Interactions Editor-in-Chief If you’re like me, you have a Twitter account but you only use it once in a while. Or maybe you’ve heard about using social media to communicate your science but haven’t yet taken the leap. Setting up work-related social media accounts is relatively easy…