Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Virginia Tech

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My research focuses on grape diseases, and especially on fungicide resistance. Grapes are often subjected to intense spray programs, and fungicide resistance has been a real problem, a situation similar to the use of antibiotics and other drugs in human medicine. I am also involved with a project on the epidemiology of boxwood blight, control of weeds and invasive plants with plant pathogens, and a fruit disease of mango. In addition, I teach courses from the beginning college level through the advanced level, but all related to plant pathology (and a little bit of weed science).

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  It was just a gradual process that started, I think, in first grade when I "won" (i don't remember what for) a little hand lens. I started using it to look at flowers and other plant parts, as well as insects, and it gradually developed into collecting a herbarium and an insect collection, and when it came time to choose a subject for college, plant protection (insects and plants) seemed a fun choice. In college, fungi got added to the mix ... and I haven't regretted it all one bit.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  (not set)

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  (not set)

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  (not set)

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  (not set)

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  1

  
  

Recent Posts

mhsmirandaspring2020 project 10 Anton Baudoin Mar 28, 2020

Aileen, thank you for your report! Will others in the group provide their own report? Just curious what is expected.

mhsmirandaspring2020 project 10 Anton Baudoin Mar 6, 2020

Thanks!  If anyone votes for #3 of the multiple-choice question, let me know and I'll see what I can do about it :-)

Thanks for the additional info. About the rotting, the fungi and bacteria that cause rotting of dead organic material…

more

Thanks!  If anyone votes for #3 of the multiple-choice question, let me know and I'll see what I can do about it :-)

Thanks for the additional info. About the rotting, the fungi and bacteria that cause rotting of dead organic material are not necessarily the same as the ones that cause root rot (although there may be some overlap).  That is why I am not convinced that coffee or milk (or whatever) will harm plant growth just by causing rot, although they can certainly hurt plant growth in some way (as seems to be the case in your experiment).

And about Norman Borlaug, that just went to illustrate that working with plants (which he did) does not need to be a complete waste of time.

mhsmirandaspring2020 project 10 Anton Baudoin Mar 3, 2020

Thank you for the answers! Here, a multiple-choice question: When a mentor asks a lot of questions, it indicates

1. That our procedures have not been described sufficiently clearly
2. That an organized and updated description of the…

more

Thank you for the answers! Here, a multiple-choice question: When a mentor asks a lot of questions, it indicates

1. That our procedures have not been described sufficiently clearly
2. That an organized and updated description of the “materials and methods” would be helpful (and should be standard in scientific reporting)
3. That he is pretty dense -- he should know what we have been doing
4. 1 and 2
5. 1 and 2 and 3

Let me know which answer each of you votes for  :-)