Plantopia

In this episode, Dr. David Hughes, Dorothy Foehr Huck & J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Global Food Security and Professor of Biology and Entomology at The Pennsylvania State University joins host Matt Kasson to discuss his 2-part career, first working on behavioral ecology of zombifying fungi and then transitioning to work on current and emerging threats to crops. He talks at length about PlantVillage, an AI-first platform he founded for helping smallholder farmers cope with pests and climate change. He also talks about the different AI-based applications he and other scientists use and rely on and emphasizes the importance of discovery and hard work in our increasingly AI-dominated work environments. Show Notes Dr. David Hughes’ Penn State faculty webpage: https://ento.psu.edu/directory/dph14 Plant Village website: https://plantvillage.psu.edu/ Dr. David Hughes’ Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9kgD3pQAAAAJ&hl=en Dr. David Hughes’ FAST Company Most Innovative in Business profile: https://www.fastcompany.com/90651745/most-creative-people-2021-david-hughes This episode is produced by Association Briefings.Special Guest: David Hughes.

In this episode, Dr. Laura Kaminsky, Co-director for Research at Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, a non-profit organization based out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that supports sustainable farms and equitable food systems, joins host Matt Kasson to discuss her career working on soil microbiology and ecology. She also discusses the non-profit organization where she currently works and discusses how it fits into the larger agricultural and plant health landscape. show notes Dr. Laura Kaminsky’s Pasa Profile: https://pasafarming.org/staff/laura-kaminsky/ Dr. Laura Kaminsky’s Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=N9k49C8AAAAJ&hl=en This episode is produced by Association Briefings.Special Guest: Laura Kaminsky.

In this episode, Dr. Boris Vinatzer, 2026 APS Fellow and Professor of Microbial Genetics and Genomics in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia joins host Matt Kasson to discuss his career working on plant biotechnology and plant pathogenic bacteria with an emphasis on Pseudomonas syringae and Rolstonia solanacearum. He also talks about his work on ice nucleation activity in bacteria and fungi and genome-based approaches for plant disease diagnostics including multi-locus sequence analysis for species level identification of plant pathogenic bacteria. show notes The full transcript for this episode can be found here: Dr. Boris Vinatzer’s Virginia Tech faculty webpage: https://spes.vt.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/vinatzer-boris.html Dr. Boris Vinatzer’s Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=STcUUYcAAAAJ&hl=en Dr. Boris Vinatzer’s 2026 APS Fellow Profile: https://www.apsnet.org/members/give-awards/Pages/awardees.aspx This episode is produced by Association Briefings.Special Guest: Boris Vinatzer.

In this episode, Dr. Rodrigo Almeida, 2026 APS Fellow, Professor of Emerging Infectious Disease Ecology, and Hildebrand-Laumeister Chair in Plant Pathology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California Berkeley joins host Matt Kasson to discuss his career working on insect-transmitted plant pathogens inside and outside California with an emphasis on the bacterial plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa, the causal agent of Pierce’s Disease of grape. He helps untangle the tricky taxonomy of Xylella and talks about some of the modern tools and techniques his lab has developed to study this fastidious organism. Show Notes Dr. Rodrigo Almeida’s UC Berkeley faculty webpage: https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/almeida-lab/home Dr. Rodrigo Almeida’s Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LMsjc2cAAAAJ&hl=en 2026 APS Fellow Profile: https://www.apsnet.org/members/give-awards/Pages/awardees.aspx This episode is produced by Association Briefings.Special Guest: Rodrigo Almeida.

In this episode, Dr. Christina Cowger, 2026 APS Fellow and Research Plant Pathologist with the USDA-ARS Plant Science Research Unit in Raleigh, North Carolina joins host Matt Kasson to discuss her career working on cereal diseases across the U.S., the contemporary threats wheat producers face, and the management tools and cultivars that the USDA and others are helping to develop and deploy to maximize production. She also gives an impromptu lesson on wheat production across the U.S. and talks about the joys of mentoring and serving as an editor for APS journals. show notes Dr. Christina Cowger USDA profile: https://www.ars.usda.gov/southeast-area/raleigh-nc/plant-science-research/docs/research-spotlight/christina-cowger-small-grains-pathologist/ Dr. Christina Cowger Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=APwxkDEAAAAJ&hl=en 2026 APS Fellow Profile: https://www.apsnet.org/members/give-awards/Pages/awardees.aspx This episode is produced by Association Briefings.Special Guest: Christina Cowger.