Innovation Award
The ENRI Innovation Award recognizes College of Agricultural Sciences faculty, extension educators, and staff who have made outstanding and innovative contributions in the environmental and natural resources field.
Award description, eligibility, and nomination criteria.
Nominations Due: March 5, 2010
2009 Award Winners
David M. Geiser, Scott A. Isard, Seogchan Kang
Combining their expertise in molecular genetics, informatics, epidemiology, and systematics, Drs. Geiser, Isard, and Kang have presented highly innovative models for integrating human capital, scientific knowledge, and informatics tools to enhance our understanding of the global diversity and dynamics of plant pathogens and to better manage the resulting diseases, and have established a series of novel informatics platforms that support and integrate community research, education and extension on plant pathogens and their diseases. The Phytophthora Database (www.phytophthoradb.org) archives genotypic and phenotypic data from known Phytophthora species and populations for species identification. They also built informatics tools that support data analysis and visualization and characterized the evolutionary relationships within the whole genus to create an evolutionary framework the global Phytophthora community can use as a reference. In collaboration with scientists in many parts of the world, they are now building a global atlas of Phytophthora integrating geographic information system (GIS) tools to the database, that will help monitor pathogen dynamics in environmental, geospatial and temporal contexts. Drs. Geiser and Kang are currently building parallel platforms for monitoring two more major pathogen groups, Fusarium and Pythium, respectively. In the long run, this federation of pathogen databases will support integration and utilization of data from diverse areas of research on plant pathogens, ranging from genomics, phylogenetics and population biology to epidemiology. Dr. Isard and his collaborators led the ipmPIPE project (www.sbrusa.net) to facilitate cooperation among researchers, extension specialists, and regulators in responding to the introduction of soybean rust to North America in 2004. The USDA estimated that the coordinated framework approach, coupled with the ipmPIPE, saved the US soybean growers between $11 and $299 million in 2005 at a low cost of between $2.6 and $5 million. The platforms and approaches Drs. Geiser, Isard and Kang developed have caused major paradigm shifts in research, education and outreach programs in plant pathology and related disciplines. In addition, they have been active in education and service to scientific societies and federal and state governments. They also have collaborated with many pathologists nationally and internationally to advance the basic understanding of major pathogens.
2007 Award Winners
The Penn State Air Quality Learning and Demonstration Center and Associates Dennis Decoteau and John Skelly
Dennis Decoteau, Professor of Horticulture and Plant Ecosystem Health in the Departments of Horticulture and Plant Pathology, and John M. Skelly, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology, in the Department of Plant Pathology are the recipients of the 2007 ENRI Innovation Award. Professor Skelly is recognized for work as a guiding force in the development of the Air Quality Learning and Demonstration Center, which is the only site in the nation and potentially the world that is dedicated to educating the public about air pollutant effects on plants. He is also recognized for his innovative work on impacts of air pollution effects on forests and forest ecosystems. This award recognizes Dennis Decoteau’s innovative work addressing the effects of environmental stressors on plant growth and development, especially the impact of air quality on terrestrial ecosystems, and his leadership in coordinating the Air Quality Learning and Demonstration Center.
