Esker Begins Epidemiology Position in PPEM

Dr. Paul Esker joined the Dept. of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology (PPEM) faculty on July 1, 2017, as Assistant Professor specializing in epidemiology and field crop extension. Paul is well known in plant pathology for his expertise in statistical epidemiological methods and his numerous national and international research and extension collaborations. He brings a much-desired wealth of plant disease epidemiological experience to the department with over 60 refereed research manuscripts, more than 100 extension publications, and numerous competitive grants.

Dr. Esker was formerly Director of the Center for Research in Grain and Seed in the School of Agronomy at the University of Costa Rica where he taught statistics and epidemiology. His major research projects included epidemiology of black sigatoka in banana, risk of mycotoxin contamination in Costa Rican crops, and modeling crop losses in soybean.

Paul earned a dual Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and Statistics from Iowa State University (ISU) in 2005. He has a bachelor's degree in genetics and bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin and an M.S. in plant pathology from ISU. Before moving to Costa Rica in 2012, Dr. Esker served for approximately four years as Assistant Professor and Extension Field Crop Plant Pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

PPEM is very excited to have Dr. Esker join Penn State because of his expertise in plant disease epidemiology, field crops extension experience, and equally important, his enthusiasm for teaching and mentoring students.