Schneider Winds Doyle Chambers Research Award - 12/15/2014

12/15/2014 - Dr. Raymond W. Schneider, Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology & Crop Physiology, LSU, received the Doyle Chambers Research Award from the LSU AgCenter 15 December 2014. This meritorious award is made annually to the scientist who, during his/her career at the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, has made the most outstanding contributions to agriculture in the state of Louisiana. 

Dr. Schneider was recognized for his research that has vastly and greatly affected the soybean industry locally, nationally, and internationally especially with his first finding of Asian Soybean Rust caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi in the US.  This new finding lead to a vast array of research endeavors that included risk model assessment and spatial analysis of ASR disease development. In this effort, he developed a state-of-the-art air spore sampler to better trap and monitor airborne populations of P. pachyrhizi as well as improved PCR detection technologies. He further demonstrated that the pathogen had a long latent period and fungicide efficacy was vastly improved with this finding.  He also discovered a fungus, Simplicillium lanosoniveum, will colonize and infect P. pachyrhizi and, as a consequence, has great potential for use as a biological control agent. He pioneered the use of vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) to study the genetics of Fusarium oxysporum and Cercospora kukuchii, the cause of soybean leaf blight.  His findings with the latter soybean pathogen demonstrated vast genetic diversity exists in the pathogen population. In part, this explains why host plant resistance breaks down rapidly and why fungicide resistance develops rapidly. Dr. Schneider has also pioneered the use of chloride for suppressing root diseases and is currently investigating the role of other minor elements against Cercospora leaf blight.