Q: Why did you choose to enroll in the DPM program?
A: Upon finishing my undergraduate degree in Agronomy Plant Science, I knew that I wanted to pursue even higher education. Looking at the options of a masters, PhD, or the DPM program I knew that the DPM program was the one for me. It is a unique multidisciplinary option to further broaden my knowledge on topics that affect how plants grow. I knew that the DPM program would make me very marketable for a diverse career in agriculture. Continue Reading →
During the summer of 2018, I had the opportunity to intern with Arborjet, a plant health care company that specializes in tree injection systems and tree pest management. The internship offered me a great chance to put my DPM skills to the test. I did bioassays on arthropod pests, plant pathogens, and soil organisms. I was given the freedom to design experiments, conduct my own data analyses, and make recommendations from those results. I was able to practice pathogen isolation and identification, and I got to work with some insects we don’t get in Florida, such as Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica).
This internship also provided good exposure to how pest management research is driven in the private sector. Sales are what provides the funding to develop new products, so there is a lot of collaboration with marketing to make sure that whatever is being developed is something that consumers will want to buy. I got to see the development process for new pesticide formulations and learned a little about how regulations affect product labeling. Though there are many large pest management companies with great internship programs, I am very grateful that my internship was with a smaller company as I was exposed to all aspects of the product life cycle and I was able to meet and learn from people acting in a variety of roles.
Richard Miranda is a member of the DPM External Advisory Committee.
Richard Miranda is the Florida State Plant Health Director (SPHD) for Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) within the USDA-APHIS. PPQ spans the entire United States, with Directors in each state working to safeguard agricultural and natural resources. In Florida, PPQ is a team of 340 employees. There are four regional areas throughout the state, and two statewide programs (the Citrus Health Rresponse Program and the Fruit Fly Exclusion and Detection Program). The Area and Program directors report directly to the SPHD. Continue Reading →
Q: Why did you choose to enroll in the DPM program? A: I was always fascinated by plants, their physiology, disorders and diseases. Research can be quite absorbing, but what I enjoy is a career built around symptoms and diagnostics.
Q: What is your current occupation, and how has your DPM degree aided you in the tasks and responsibilities as sociated with your position? A: Currently I am a consultant at Dellavalle Laboratory, Inc. We are located in the heart of California agriculture. In season (February-October), on any given day I may get called to look at symptoms on virtually any temperate or Mediterranean crop you can name: cotton, corn, tomatoes, alfalfa, citrus, almonds, grapes, stonefruit, or walnuts to list the most common ones.
There is plenty of routine crop health to sustain the business in terms of plant nutrition sampling and recommendations. I diagnose damage from salts and other abiotic disorders, nematodes, diseases, herbicide drift and occasionally insects. There is a whole separate industry for pesticide recommendations here. I get called when farmers and pest control advisors (PCAs) see symptoms they can’t understand or identify. It sounds like the description of a Doctor of Plant Medicine, doesn’t it? Continue Reading →
I am a pathways intern at the USDA-APHIS-PPQ office in Gainesville. I began this internship in June 2017, and since then I have had a chance to learn about PPQ-Florida’s operations and the overall structure and culture of working in a federal agency. I have shadowed citrus health response personnel and fruit fly trappers in the Tampa area, attended a review of CBP port inspections in West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce, and traveled to Raleigh, NC to visit the Center for Plant Health Science and Technology and the Plant Epidemiology and Risk Analysis Laboratory.
I’ve also worked on some very interesting projects, including a study of cruise ship gardens as a pathway for the introduction of exotic pests. I am currently finishing up a case study on the recent outbreak of the Mediterranean fruit fly in the Dominican Republic, and my findings will be used to help support the use of trapping and pest surveillance to reduce the threat of such a large and expensive outbreak occurring again.
My experience as a DPM student has parlayed well into my internship. The mission of USDA-APHIS-PPQ is to protect American agriculture from exotic pests of all types, and an interdisciplinary perspective is required to achieve this goal.
Dr. Gregory MacDonald is a Professor of Weed Science and Agronomy at the University of Florida. He first started at UF 20 years ago with a 70% research and 30% teaching appointment. Over the course of his time at UF, his appointment has shifted to 70% teaching and 30% research.
Dr. MacDonald is originally from upstate New York. He received an Associate’s degree in Agricultural Engineering at Alfred State College. He completed a Bachelor’s degree at Cornell University in Plant Sciences with a focus on vegetable crop production. His Master’s and PhD programs were completed at UF in weed science. As Master’s student, Dr. MacDonald researched row crop weed science, and as a PhD student he focused on invasive plant management. Before starting as a faculty member at UF, Dr. MacDonald was an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia with a 100% extension appointment. He managed over 20 commodities, including several fruits, vegetables, corn, cotton, and sorghum. He worked with extension agents across the state and gave 20-80 extension presentations every year. Continue Reading →
Featured in the DPM Summer 2018 Newsletter
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