Lincoln, Neb. —Robert Harveson and Satyanarayana Tatieni within Nebraska’s department of plant pathology have recently been named fellows to The American Phytopathological Society in recognition to their distinguished contributions to plant pathology.
In honoring Harveson and Tatieni, the APS notes the energy and commitment of fellows who work to ensure the global advancement of plant pathology. APS is driven by a distinctive community of scientists who push frontiers in the accuracy and speed of field diagnosis to increase our understanding through laboratory research.
Robert Harveson is a Professor in the department of plant pathology, stationed at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff and with a split research and Extension appointment. Harveson works to provide regional growers with services, training, and education to reduce losses to new and/or important diseases of specialty crops.
Robert Harveson
Harveson’s applied research and Extension program has been exceptional in meeting the needs of regional producers. As a result, he has gained regional and national acclaim among growers, commodity groups, and agri-industry as well as international recognition from the scientific community for expertise in diseases of specialty crops.
“The reach and impact of Dr. Harveson’s program is vast. One example is his work on a
disease complex that was impacting sugar beet production across the region, an over $1.10 billion industry,” the APS organization said in announcing the award.
Satyanarayana Tatineni joined the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Lincoln, Neb. in 2008 as a research plant pathologist to work on wheat viral diseases. He is currently the lead scientist for a 3-scientist project on wheat, and in his research in the past 14 years he has focused on understanding how viruses cause the disease and how they are transmitted, with the intent to use this information to develop novel disease management strategies by disrupting the virus infection cycle.
Satyanarayana Tatineni
He is one of the few universalists in the world, able to integrate classical and molecular virology, and successfully apply reverse genetics tools to characterize and understand how viruses elicit diseases on peanut, citrus, and wheat.
“Tatineni is one of the internationally recognized experts in the field of plant virology known for his two seminal contributions on tospoviruses, closteroviruses, and potyviruses; three major groups of viruses affecting key agronomically important crops around the world,” the APS shared.