About the Department

The Department of Plant Pathology performs an essential role in improving and monitoring the health of plants grown for economic, environmental, and amenity purposes. It does so by innovative leadership in outreach education, research, and fostering economic development and market competitiveness.

Partnerships with educational, state, federal, public and private sectors enable plant pathologists to provide dynamic programs that are ecologically sound, economically and environmentally sustainable, socially responsible and scientifically appropriate.

In January 2007, Dr. James R. Steadman became Plant Pathology's Department Head. For more information about Dr. Steadman's research interests and background, see his Faculty Information page.

Department History

University of Nebraska–Lincoln is the flagship institution of the University of Nebraska system. It was founded in 1869 as a land-grant university under the provisions of the Morrill Act   The College of Agriculture was begun in 1872.  The department was established in 1884 as a faculty of the Department of Botany. In 1920 the Department of Plant Pathology was formed in the College of Agriculture. The first staff members in Plant Pathology were transfers from Botany in the College of Arts and Sciences. The relationship with the College of Arts and Sciences continued, and continues to this day, with Plant Pathology graduate degrees being offered through the School of Biological Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Practical plant disease problems were the emphasis in the early years of the department with the focus being on potatoes, cereal crops, sugar beets, alfalfa, and shelter belt trees. The Department gradually grew from two scientists in 1920 when the Department was officially founded, to its present component of 16 including two USDA-ARS faculty.

Basic research in Host-Parasite Interactions / Disease Resistance and Virology have been a major contribution of the department beginning in the 1950's. Only three scientists from Nebraska have been elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences. All three are Plant Pathologists from the Department of Plant Pathology. Dr. Myron K. Brakke's seminal work in virology and development of the ultracentrifuge for elucidating biophysical properties of plant viruses via density gradient centrifugation resulted in his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1974. Dr. J.M. Daly's research on fungal toxins as the causative mechanisms on cereal diseases lead to his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1984. In recognition of his research on large dsDNA-containing viruses that infect algae, (chlorella viruses and phycodnaviruses) and sequencing of the virus PBCV-1, Dr. James L. Van Etten was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003.

From July 2000 to 2002 Dr. Anne K. Vidaver (Professor) was on leave from the Department to serve as Chief Scientist of USDA NRI Competitive Grants Program. In 2005 she was appointed to the NIH National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and serves as the only "plant" member on the board.