Research in the department on Diagnosis, Forecasting and Disease Management integrates strategies such as cultural and biological controls, chemical control, host plant resistance, disease-free planting stock programs, and others to improve farming systems. A major accomplishment of this research has been the development of a high quality diagnostic facility with state-of-the-art database systems for tracking and reporting diagnoses.
- Dr. Oliver Baars – Analysis and biological chemistry of exudates in plant-microbe interactions. Nutrient controls on plant microbiome activity.
- Dr. Peter Balint-Kurti – Mapping and functional analysis of quantitative loci conferring resistance to fungal pathogens in maize
- Dr. David McK. Bird – Functional and structural genomics of plant-nematode interactions; plant and nematode proteomics
- Dr. Ignazio Carbone – Fungal evolutionary genomics, population genetics; phylogeography
- Dr. Christina Cowger – Population and molecular genetics of fungal diseases of cereals
- Dr. Marc Cubeta – Genetics, ecology, and population biology of soil fungi
- Dr. Margaret E. Daub – Fungal cell and molecular biology, Cercospora diseases, pathogen toxins, active oxygen, plant cell culture and transformation
- Dr. Eric L. Davis – Functional genomics & molecular mechanisms of parasitism by nematodes
- Dr. Ralph A. Dean – Fungal and host genomics; Director, Center for Integrated Fungal Research
- Dr. Steven A. Lommel – Virus movement and systemic plant infection: RNA-RNA virus regulation
- Dr. David S. Marshall – breeding for disease resistance; population structure of small grains
- Dr. Charles H. Opperman – Genomics of nematodes, plants, and microbial antagonists of nematodes
- Dr. Lina Quesada – Diseases of cucurbit crops and sweetpotato to deliver novel and improved disease management strategies to growers in North Carolina and advance our knowledge in the field of vegetable pathology.
- Dr. Jean Beagle Ristaino – Population genomics of Phytophthora infestans and molecular evolution.
- Dr. David F. Ritchie – Molecular and population genetics of phytobacteria
- Dr. H. David Shew – Population structure of soilborne pathogens and mechanisms of infection
- Dr. Sara Villani – Management of ornamental and apple diseases