Dennis Halterman
USDA ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit
I grew up as the child of science and algebra teachers. During the summer, I worked on my extended family’s farms in north-central Illinois helping to raise 1500+ acres of corn and soybeans. This combination of science, math, and agriculture influenced my decision to major in biology and biochemistry at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa and went on to complete Ph.D. at Purdue University studying tomato disease resistance. I studied powdery mildew resistance in barley as a USDA/ARS postdoc before accepting my current position in 2004 with the USDA in Madison, Wisconsin. My research group has worked to identify new sources of disease resistance in wild relatives of potato and understand their role in recognizing pathogens and activating resistance. Our work has led to the identification of new sources of late blight resistance and a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of resistance to late blight, PVY, verticillium, and other diseases.
Within the PAA, I have served as a member of the Graduate Student Competition Committee (2009-2021), chair of the Breeding and Genetics Committee (2010-2011), Senior Editor for the AJPR (since 2016), Director (2019-2022), and went through the PAA Presidential succession (2022-2025). I facilitated the transition of the PAA management groups from AMR to Scientific Societies (SciSoc). This transition brings with it a much larger group of staff to help manage the PAA business. Many of the responsibilities of SciSoc in this partnership overlap considerably with the duties of the PAA Secretary. This has led to some proposed changes in the Secretary position to allow more oversight and attention to communication efforts, both within the PAA and between the PAA and our public and private stakeholders. I am very interested in this opportunity, as I feel that it is an area of our Association that has the greatest potential to increase our visibility and impact.
Several years ago, I helped organize the PAA outreach committee which was responsible for maintaining active PAA Twitter/Facebook accounts and production of the “Meet the PAA” promotional video. The committee has worked to increase the visibility of PAA as a group of leaders within the international potato research community. This will, in turn, lead to an increase in membership, an increase in the number of manuscripts submitted to the AJPR, and an increase in government and private funding to support our research. I also have a strong history of volunteerism within scientific societies and have also served in the Office of Public Relations and Outreach with the American Phytopathological Society, and as Editor-in-Chief of the Interactions newsletter and Board member for the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions.
If selected for the position of Secretary of the PAA, it would be my honor to carry out the traditional duties of the position, as well as lead our Association’s efforts to support and promote potato research and highlight the impact that our members have on the international potato industry.
