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Rutgers University Department of Plant Biology and Center for Turfgrass Science welcome Dr. Ming-Yi Chou to the faculty as an Assistant Extension Specialist, specializing in turfgrass pathology. Dr. Chou’s extension program will focus on evaluating and developing efficient cool-season turfgrass disease management measures, including cultural practices, disease prediction models, synthetic fungicides, and biorational agents. His research will focus on plant-soil-microbe interactions in turfgrass, with an emphasis on how these interactions and coevolution collectively contribute to disease suppression.
Dr. Chou earned his bachelor’s degree in horticulture science from National Taiwan University, master’s degree in wine business from École Supérieure de Commerce de Dijon. He worked as a sommelier in L’Atelier De Joël Robuchon in Taipei before completing his Ph.D. in Horticultural Biology at Cornell University. He was the manager of vineyard technology in St. Supery vineyards and winery in Napa Velley, CA before returning to academia in post-doctoral positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Great Lakes Bioenergy Center in Michigan State University where he studied plant-soil-microbiome interaction with emphases on pathogen suppression microbes in turfgrass and beneficial microbes for bioenergy crops. Prior to joining Rutgers, Dr. Chou was a Research Scientist in turfgrass pathology program at University of Wisconsin-Madison, examining dollar spot suppressive microbiome and building snow molds predictive models. He was also involved in fungicide efficacy evaluation program for diseases important to upper Midwest such as dollar spot and snow molds.
Aside from work, he practices meditation and plays badminton. He is new to golf but is eager to improve.