New Personnel at Aberdeen
In April of 2002, Dr. J. Michael Bonman began his employment with USDA-ARS as Supervisory Plant Pathologist, and he will serve as Research Leader of the ARS Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research Unit at Aberdeen, Idaho. Prior to his ARS employment, Dr. Bonman conducted fungicide discovery research for Dupont Plant Protection at Newark, Delaware. Before that, he focused on rice diseases, especially rice blast, at the International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Philippines. Dr. Bonman was also a postdoctoral fellow with the Rockefeller Foundation under the direction of Dr. Bobby Renfro the Thai National Corn and Sorghum Center near Pak Chong, Thailand. Mike received a PhD in Plant Pathology and an MS in Botany, both from Washington State University. Dr. Bonman’s professional interests include disease resistance, disease management and fungicides, crop improvement, and international agriculture.
During August of 2002, Dr. Don Obert began working for the USDA-ARS in Aberdeen as a Research Geneticist and will serve as an ARS barley and oat breeder, a position previously held by Dr. Darrell Wesenberg, who retired from the ARS in 2001. Prior to his ARS employment, Dr. Obert worked as a postdoctoral associate in the wheat breeding program at Texas A&M University. Don received his PhD from Kansas State Unversity and his MS was earned at the University of Arkansas. In addition to barley and oat breeding, Dr. Obert’s research interests include breeding strategy evaluation, oat rust resistance breeding, and the evaluation of early generation quality factors.
contributed by David L.
Hoffman, editor of the Oat Newsletter