Boise, Idaho
November 5, 2008
The
University of Idaho College
of Agricultural and Life Sciences has filled two key positions
in its potato program. Phillip S. Wharton, a senior research
associate at Michigan State University, joined the faculty as
potato plant pathologist at the Aberdeen Research and Extension
Center on Oct. 20, while Sanjay Gupta, a research associate at
the University of Minnesota, will become potato post-harvest
physiologist at Kimberly in mid-November.
 Wharton
earned his Ph.D. in plant disease resistance in 1997 at the
United Kingdom’s University of Reading. He spent the following
two years as a post-doctoral researcher at Purdue University,
where he investigated mechanisms of plant disease resistance in
sorghum. Since 1999, he has been employed by Michigan State
University, where he studied the biology and epidemiology of
diseases of cherries, blueberries, strawberries, and grapes
before concentrating his efforts during the past four years on
late blight, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium dry rot and other diseases of
potatoes and sugarbeets.
According to Wharton, the University of Idaho position was
appealing because it allows him to expand his research on
potatoes. “Idaho being the capital of potatoes, it was an
opportunity that could not be missed,” he said.
In Idaho, Wharton expects to conduct research on black dot and
pink rot, among other diseases, as well as on weather-based
disease forecasting. In addition, he intends to set up Web sites
that will allow him to deliver education to growers, producers
and crop advisors, as he did previously at Michigan State
University.
Gupta earned his Ph.D. in botany in 1997 at India’s Kanpur
University, where he wrote his dissertation on chickpea seed
development. He was a visiting scientist at Washington State
University from 1991 to 1995, working on the physiology of
photosynthesis and cold-hardy citrus fruit. For the next few
years, he improved chickpea and rice lines as a research fellow
for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization in Canberra, Australia, and conducted post-doctoral
research on starch metabolism in rice and on nutritional and
disease-resistance improvements in chickpeas as a post-doctoral
researcher at WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry.
 Since
1998, Gupta’s efforts at the University of Minnesota have
focused on potatoes, including genetic improvements to chippers,
understanding the regulation of cold-induced sweetening and
developing a rapid screening method for cold-sweetening
resistance.
At the University of Idaho, Gupta expects his initial studies to
include respiration in cold storage, screening for acrylamide
and cold-sweetening resistance, and sprout inhibitor
evaluations. He was drawn to the position because it offers new
challenges within the same line of work and because Idaho potato
scientists are among the most active groups in the nation. “I
felt that I could contribute to the projects that they have,” he
said.
As assistant professors in the Department of Plant, Soil and
Entomological Sciences, both Wharton and Gupta will participate
in the interdisciplinary Idaho Center for Potato Research and
Education.
“The university and the potato industry are fortunate to be able
to attract faculty members with the experience that Phillip and
Sanjay bring to our potato team,” said department head Ding
Johnson. “They will fill critical voids and bring novel
educational backgrounds that expand the capabilities of our
potato program.”
Founded in 1889, the University of Idaho is the state’s
flagship higher-education institution and its principal graduate
education and research university, bringing insight and
innovation to the state, the nation and the world. University
researchers attract nearly $100 million in research grants and
contracts each year; the University of Idaho is the only
institution in the state to earn the prestigious Carnegie
Foundation ranking for high research activity. The university’s
student population includes first-generation college students
and ethnically diverse scholars. Offering more than 150 degree
options in 10 colleges, the university combines the strengths of
a large university with the intimacy of small learning
communities. |
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