January 8, 2016
CapitalPress.com
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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