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January 8, 2016 CapitalPress.com 7 1RUWKZHVWEHQH¿WLQJIURP SRWDWRUHVHDUFKFRRSHUDWLRQ By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press UI hires new crop disease pathologists By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press IDAHO FALLS — The University of Idaho has hired crop disease experts to fill two vacant positions and plans to start a diagnostic laboratory in Parma, where a wide variety of crops will be tested for pathogens. Kasia Kinzer, director of the plant diagnostic laborato- ry at North Dakota State Uni- versity, will be UI Extension’s new seed potato pathologist, replacing Phil Nolte, who re- tired in early 2015. Kinzer, 45, will share time between offices in Ab- erdeen and Idaho Falls and is scheduled to start with UI during the week of Jan. 11. James Woodhall, of the United Kingdom, has been running a federal laborato- ry in York focused on po- tato diagnostics with the country’s Food and Envi- ronmental Research Agen- cy. Woodhall, who starts in February, will be a general plant pathologist covering Idaho’s major crops. He will be based at the UI’s Parma Research and Extension Center. “He’s very well respect- ed in the plant pathology molecular techniques area,” said Mark McGuire, interim director of the Idaho Agri- cultural Experiment Station. McGuire said Woodhall’s first duty will be setting up UI’s planned plant diag- nostic laboratory in Parma, which will aid in the rapid detection of Idaho crop dis- eases. McGuire said support for the lab is “mostly coming from the agronomists on the faculty and the county exten- sion agents saying we need to better identify the prob- lems out in the industry, and to do that, we need a location to send (samples) to get an accurate assessment of the diseases out there.” McGuire estimates it will take Woodhall six months to a year to get the labora- tory set up to accept a large number of samples. Both Woodhall and Kinzer will be allocated $150,000 to get their labs started. McGuire said some renovations of the Parma facility will like- ly be in order to accommo- date the new diagnostic lab. Woodhall, who has al- ready done some work in Aberdeen while on sabbat- ical, will hire a single sup- port person in his first year to help get the laboratory running, with subsequent hires based on the volume of samples processed by the lab. Kinzer spent six years in Idaho after completing her master’s degree at the University of Minnesota and working a year for an Iowa State University crop epidemiologist. She spent 11 months working under UI nematologist Saad Hafez in Parma and remained in Idaho to work for a small vegetable seed company, before becoming director of the NDSU diagnostic lab. In September, Kinzer also finished a Ph.D. in plant pa- thology from NDSU. “I’m very excited to be able to focus on one crop,” Kinzer said. McGuire said Kinzer will work closely with Woodhall on seed potato pathology is- sues. Kinzer’s husband, Dwight, operates his own agricultural engineering business. They have two children, Coleman, 13, and Elyce, 14. nematodes — and submitted it for a roughly $600,000 USDA grant seeking to promote co- operation among researchers in different states. Jensen said KHLGHQWL¿HGDGGLWLRQDOVFLHQ- tists to include in the propos- al to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s Specialty Crop Multi-state Grant Pro- gram. “We have the three states working together on paper in DQRI¿FLDOZD\VRZKHQZHDV an industry or research com- munity want to apply for big USDA grants, we can effec- tively say we’re working to- gether as a Northwest indus- try,” Jensen said. Jensen said crop scientists in the three states are sharing ideas as they research com- mon problems and are collab- orating more than ever before. University of Idaho Ex- tension weed specialist Pam Hutchinson said the consor- tium’s approach has expe- dited the approval process for research funding, and the policy of taking pre-proposals has helped researchers avoid needless work on applications that don’t make the cut. Furthermore, Hutchinson said, feedback from Jensen helps researchers hone their projects when before submit in-depth proposals. On Dec. 17, members of UI’s Potato Pest Manage- ment Advisory Committee met in Aberdeen to identify priorities for future research, guiding their funding requests from the consortium and other grant sources. Aphid research and preparing for the onset of chemical resistance among Colorado potato beetles were among the top priorities of WKHLQGXVWU\RI¿FLDOVLQDWWHQ- dance. BUYING 6” and UP Alder and Maple Saw Logs, Standing Timber www.cascadehardwood.com ROP-1-5-2/#24 Courtesy of Kasia Kinzer Kasia Kinzer, director of the plant diagnostic lab at North Dakota State University, has been hired to be University of Idaho’s new VHHGSRWDWRSDWKRORJLVW¿OOLQJWKHSRVLWLRQYDFDWHGZKHQ3KLO1ROWH retired in early 2015. EAGLE, Idaho — Leaders of the potato commissions in Idaho, Oregon and Wash- ington state believe they’re better positioned to bring in USDA grants now that they’re pooling their research dollars. The commissions began funding projects together in 2012, operating as the North- west Potato Research Con- sortium. Andy Jensen, the consor- tium’s director, said industry RI¿FLDOV UHSUHVHQWLQJ WKH UH- search committees of each commission received more than 50 rudimentary research project outlines during a late-October meeting in Port- land, Ore., and requested full proposals to further evaluate 38 of those projects. Prior to a Dec. 15 dead- line, Jensen said scientists submitted detailed propos- als, requesting more than $2 million from a $1.5 million funding pool. The Washing- ton and Idaho commissions each contribute $650,000 to the research fund, and Oregon allocates $200,000 — roughly equivalent to what each com- mission invested in research prior to the partnership. During the third week of January, the state research committees will rank the proj- ects by perceived importance, and three members from each FRPPLVVLRQ ZLOO PDNH ¿QDO decisions during a Jan. 29 meeting in Pasco, Wash. Jensen pulled out one of the submissions — a collab- orative project led by Oregon State University, proposing to study genetic resistance in spuds to verticillium wilt and 2-4/#4N
