12/14/05 KSU scientist to fill Cook Chair at WSU

12/14/05 KSU scientist to fill Cook Chair at WSU

Washington Ag December 14, 2005 The interim head of the department of plant pathology at Kansas State University, Scot Hulbert has been selected to fill the R. James Cook Endowed Chair in Cropping Systems Pathology at Washington State University. Hulbert, a Mount Vernon native and a 1979 graduate of WSU, will assume his duties July 1st succeeding the retired James Cook for whom the chair was named. He will teach and conduct research on wheat-based cropping systems in eastern Washington and on plant disease management as well as provide leadership for a number of ongoing long term cropping systems research projects. Curtis Hennings, grower and Wheat Commission chairman, who served on the search committee for the Cook Chair, would like to see a diligent effort to push cropping systems further ahead and in particular find a way to manage or control the root disease rhizoctonia. Hennings: "Most of the problems we have other than rainfall is what goes on beneath the surface of the soil. If we were to be lucky enough to have some of these problems fixed you would see all kinds of different crops that would complement each other and make farming more profitable." Hennings hopes to see Hulbert out collecting observations from farmers and then assimilating that with his own knowledge to help turn on the light bulb for the next discovery. I'm Bob Hoff.
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