Plant Pathology Research Staff
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Dr. Nirmala Bardiya |
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J.D. manages field and laboratory nematology projects for statewide nematology research and extension education programs. He provides county agent and grower assistance and information as appropriate and cooperates in conducting the annual Soybean Cultivar Disease Screening Project and in operations of the Nematode Diagnostic Laboratory. He also cooperates with other statewide extension faculty as needed. |
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Ronnie is responsible for management of the Nematode Diagnostic Laboratory including all nematode diagnostics for the state. His duties include identification and quantification of nematodes extracted soil, plant tissue, or seed samples from Arkansas producers, homeowners, industry personnel, and University or Extension specialists. He cooperates with other extension personnel in designing and establishing nematode management demonstration and applied research projects, collecting, evaluating, interpreting, and reporting results. Ronnie also develops and delivers educational material relating to the Arkansas Nematode Diagnostic Laboratory as appropriate and provides technical support in nematology in classrooms and informal educational efforts.
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Amy's major focus is on Asian Soybean Rust. She is responsible for soybean rust monitoring throughout the state including coordination of scouting efforts in sentinel plots and farmer fields, sample diagnosis and data entry into the national soybean rust database, PIPE, supported by USDA. She is also involved with precision agriculture applications for disease management in crops such as corn and cotton.
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Devany works on screening of soybean cultivars for reaction to aerial blight disease and is evaluating the Shannon method for chloride toxicity assessment to soybeans. He also conducts fungicide trials on grain sorghum and helps evaluate grain sorghum cultivars of reaction to various diseases. In addition, Dev helps with nematode work at times, as well as frogeye leaf spot screening of soybean in the greenhouse. And in his spare time, he works on biocontrol fungi of nematodes and provides general assistance to the rice pathology program.
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 Michael Q. Ditmore II Program Associate I mditmore@uark.edu |
Michael is involved in the elucidation of host-pathogen molecular pathways. Currently there are projects focusing on strain-strain interactions and manipulation of the host defense response during infection and colonization of fungal pathogens. Specifically, they are concerned with False Smut of rice, Anthracnose of grain sorghum, and the continued evaluation of the first commercially available biological control agent, Collego, developed out of this laboratory. |
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Michael manages field research trials on soybeans, corn, wheat, sorghum and cotton for the extension plant pathology program for northeast and central Arkansas. His duties include plot design, planting, crop management, data collection and disbursement, and equipment maintenance. Michael is also responsible for soybean disease variety screening trials in regard to frogeye and SDS affecting soybean.
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Chunda works on plant diseases including rice blast, spinach downy mildew and pepper anthracnose. He conducts research on inheritance of plant resistance, development of molecular markers for host resistant genes, and characterization of fungus pathogen with genetic and molecular approaches. |
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Jason manages field research trials on soybeans, corn, wheat, sorghum and cotton for the extension plant pathology program for northeast and central Arkansas. His duties include planting, crop management, data collection, and harvesting. Jason also works for the Extension Soybean Agronomist.
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Sandy supervises and maintains the Electron Microscope Facility and assists faculty, staff and students with their projects. She also conducts research on Arkansas soybean seed quality for Dr. Rick Cartwright. |
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Amanda supports the Extension Plant Pathologist for southeast and central Arkansas in conducting applied disease management research including data collection, disease monitoring, recordkeeping, plot design, field work, fungicide evaluations, disease ratings, disease identification, monitoring of plots for other pests, supervision of student workers, worker training, equipment maintenance, data analysis, and data reporting. Amanda is also a graduate student in the Department of Plant Pathology. |
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Bob helps to manage the soybean disease research program of Dr. John Rupe in Fayetteville, working primarily on stem canker and charcoal rot. Bob also works on Sudden Death Syndrome, Phytophthora root rot, and Phomopsis seed decay on soybeans. He monitors for diseases on biodiesel crops such as canola and sunflower.
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Cathy coordinates information technology and reporting results to clientele of the Arkansas Nematode Diagnostic Laboratory. She is responsible for receiving and processing samples into the DDDI system once received at the Lab. She also provides general and clerical support for the extension plant pathology program in southwest Arkansas. She works under the direction of Terry Kirkpatrick.
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Kim coordinates the nematode and soybean stem canker aspects of the annual Soybean Cultivar Disease Screening Project. She conducts screening evaluations on approximately 300 new soybean cultivars and breeding lines from the annual Official Variety Test including for the soybean cyst nematode, the root-knot nematode, and stem canker. She also serves as a member of the Asian Soybean Rust working group to monitor sentinel plots and farmer's fields for the disease, and as a contributing writer for Arkansas Plant Pathology, the Department's newsletter.
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Larry is involved in research for Dr. Robert Robbins. The research involves greenhouse work including everything from pottin up, transplanting, inoculating and data collection of various nematodes. He also helps maintain a stock culture collection that is used in research as well as supplying other programs. Recently, Larry has been entering information on identifying nematode species into the computer making it much easier to access as well as publish. He also maintains two departmental vehicles by making sure the service is up-to-date. |
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Margie prepares samples received at the Arkansas Nematode Diagnostic Laboratory for diagnosis. She extracts nematodes from the soil samples through a series of laboratory procedures in preparation for sample diagnosis by Ronnie Bateman. |
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Debby Monfort |
Debby's responsibilities currently include developing and maintaining a state and regional soybean seed quality education program through creation of print/electronic educational materials, including a Web site and podcasts, and organization of local, state, and regional meetings. She manages a statewide seed survey, coordinates sample testing, and maintains sample data. She also assists Dr. Rick Cartwright in overall management and organization of the statewide soybean seed quality project. Debby also assists Dr. Terry Kirkpatrick with management of the Organization of Nematologists of Tropical America (ONTA) Web site. Additionally, she is editor for the Department's newsletter, Arkansas Plant Pathology. |
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David assists Dr. Eugene Milus in a program to research wheat diseases in field, greenhouse, growth chamber, and laboratory environments and to incorporate resistance to selected diseases into wheat germplasm.
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Lacy is studying the effects of biotic stresses, such as insects and pathogens, on the terpene biosynthetic pathways in Medicago truncatula. Specifically, she is looking at how genes in the two pathways are regulated in response to different types of pests.
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Charlie is responsible for day to day maintenance of the experimental field plots including planting, fertilizing, and monitoring for weeds, disease and other pests |
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Julie's responsibilities currently focus on determining the effect of storage and handling conditions on soybean seed quality for Dr. Cartwright and Dr. Rupe, although she also provides widespread and diverse support for Dr. Cartwright's overall applied research program. This includes laboratory management supporting rice, soybean and grain sorghum disease management; assistance with educational programs for row crop pathology; field project support statewide as needed; data management and analysis; and special project management. |
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Ramsey has been working with Dr. Craig Rothrock and soilborne plant pathogens of various crops for the last nine years. The last few years they have concentrated on seedling diseases of rice. They are presently working with resistance to Pythium incited dampin-off of cold-adapted rice cultivars and some of the influences and mechanisms of that resistance. Ramsey also teaches various classes at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville, AR. |
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Sherrie is responsible for operation of the statewide Plant Health Clinic and all plant diagnostics for the state including making recommendations and keeping records using the DDDI Web-based system. Sherrie is also involved with extension and community outreach events including field days, flower and garden shows and as author for the weekly Plant Health Clinic newsletter which is distributed by email and available online. She also coordinates with the Soybean Rust Working Group and participates with the NPDN network.
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Adele arrived in Plant Pathology in 2005 from a background in agronomy and cotton production. Now she works in soybeans and prepares seed for planting in the spring, collects field data during the summer, and performs experiments in the greenhouse through the fall and winter. She also helps graduate students and visiting scholars and keeps the soybean pathology lab clean and running smoothly. |
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Scott has provided research support for Dr. Rothrock since 1989, including conducting the National Cottonseed Treatment test. He has experience in the isolation, enumeration and identification of soil pathogens including identifying anastomosis groups (AG) of Rhizoctonia solani. Scott acts as the de facto departmental audio-visual and computer resource person. He also works with environmental monitoring equipment, GPS-GIS and video records student seminars. |
