The Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology invites you to their Awards Presentation and Graduate Student Invited Lectureship.

We will be presenting the awards for the Edmond C. Calavan Scholarship, the Peter and Pamela Tsao Graduate Student Award, the Microbiology Departmental Student Award, and the Excellence in Mycology Award, followed by a lecture by Timothy Miles.

Dr. Timothy Miles, Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University.

Lectureship Title: "Fantastic Pathogens In Specialty Crops And Where To Find Them"

Biography: Dr. Miles is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University. His research program focuses on fungal and oomycete pathogens on small fruit and hops covering a broad range of topics such as fungal genomics, fungicide resistance, metagenomics, postharvest diseases and molecular diagnostics. He received his B.Sc. degree in Biology at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI and completed a PhD from Michigan State University in 2011 on anthracnose fruit rot of blueberry. Afterwards he held postdoctoral positions at the University of Idaho (Aberdeen, ID) and the USDA-ARS (Salinas, CA), both focusing on molecular diagnostics of various plant pathogens (primarily Phytophthora, Pythium and Rhizoctonia spp.). He then was an Assistant Professor at California State  University Monterey Bay where he worked with undergraduate students on various molecular diagnostic projects for plant pathogens. He returned to MSU in 2018 and currently his research and extension interests are  focused on developing and implementing the best disease management practices.