Innovation in plant health and pest management
Our research scientists focus on microbial and arthropod diversity and diagnostics, disease and insect management, applied biotechnology, insect toxicology, physiology and chemical ecology, and plant responses to pests and stress.
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Below are our faculty and their areas of work:
- Dr. Anthony Abbate: pollinator ecology, biodiversity and conservation
- Dr. Arthur Appel: termites, cockroaches, urban structural IPM, respirometry, physiology, toxicology
- Dr. John Beckmann: pests of livestock and poultry, mosquitoes, biotechnology, sterile insect technique
- Dr. Kira Bowen: epidemiology, field crops plant pathology
- Dr. Selina Bruckner: beekeeping and honey bee IPM
- Dr. Jess Coleman: fungal diseases and biological control
- Dr. Leonardo De La Fuente: bacterial pathogens (Xylella fastidiosa)
- Dr. Paulo Gimenez Cremonez: pests of fruit and vegetable crops, insecticide resistance management, organic crops IPM
- Dr. Scott Graham: field crops entomology, toxicology, plant-incorporated protectants
- Dr. Nate Hardy: insect biodiversity, plant-insect interactions, invasive species
- Dr. David Held: lawn and landscape pests, pests of nursery and sod production, state IPM coordinator
- Dr. Xing Ping Hu: termites, cockroaches, urban structural IPM
- Dr. Alana Jacobson: insect-virus interactions, pests of field crops, invasive species
- Dr. Kathy Lawrence: field crops plant pathology and nematology
- Dr. Nannan Liu: molecular entomology, toxicology, physiology, chemical ecology
- Dr. Kate Martin: field crops entomology, function of viruses within insects and plants
- Dr. Nobuaki Mizumoto: termites, behavioral ecology
- Dr. Zachary Noel: microbial diversity and communities, beneficial microbes
- Dr. Sang Wook Park: molecular plant pathology, defense signaling, host response to environmental stress
- Dr. Clint Penick: urban insect ecology, insect physiology, biodiversity
- Dr. Neha Potnis: bacterial diversity, microbial communities, omics applications in plant pathology
- Dr. Ed Sikora: IPM for diseases of soybeans, vegetable, fruit and nut crops, and corn
- Dr. Amanda Strayer-Scherer: IPM for diseases of peanuts, cotton, turf grass, and ornamental crops
- Dr. Geoff Williams: honey bee toxicology, physiology, director of AU Bee Center
Neha Potnis, an associate professor in the department, continues this legacy as she works to find sustainable solutions to manage endemic bacterial plant diseases.
In an already stressful and trying growing season, researchers at Auburn University and Alabama Cooperative Extension professionals have confirmed an invasive insect, the two-spot cotton leafhopper, in cotton fields in Alabama. The insect is also commonly known as the cotton jassid.
Auburn alumni Capt. Tolulope Morawo and Lt. Col. Steven “Mark” Pelham met against the odds: on Army Reserve deployment facing the New World Screwworm fly.
