Melanson Receives the "Ray And Dorothy Young Endowed Assistantship in Crop Intergrated Pest Management"

Ms. Rebecca A. Melanson was honored at the 2013 College of Agriculture Alumni Awards Reception, held at the Lod Cook Alumni Center on March 20, 2013, as the first recipient of the “Ray and Dorothy Young Endowed Assistantship in Crop Integrated Pest Management”.  Melanson is a graduate student in the Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology under the direction of associate professor Dr.Jong H. Ham.  She is currently working to complete her dissertation research on the “Characterization of a novel negative LysR-type transcriptional regulatory factor of toxoflavin production in Burkholderia glumae, the causal agent of bacterial panicle blight of rice”. The knowledge gained from this research will give scientists a better understanding of how the bacterial pathogen Burkholderia glumae causes disease in rice and will ultimately lead to the development of disease management methods that rice producers can utilize to prevent yield losses attributed to bacterial panicle blight. 

The “Ray and Dorothy Young Endowed Assistantship in Crop Integrated Pest Management” was established to honor Mr. Young for his professional contributions and service to agricultural industries for more than 40 years as an agricultural consultant. The establishment of the award was announced at the annual Louisiana Agricultural Technology and Management Conference in 2011 and was formalized by a donation from the Louisiana Agricultural Consultant’s Association.  

Mr. Ray Young was in attendance at the alumni awards reception to present the award.