Postdoctoral scholar joins Esker Lab

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology welcomes new postdoctoral scholar, Felipe Dalla Lana, who joined the Esker Lab in November.

Dalla Lana's research focuses on quantitative epidemiology, more specifically on the development of decision-making tools for row crops such as corn, wheat, and soybean, which will help farmers and stakeholders make data-driven decisions for disease management.

Prior to joining Penn State, Dalla Lana has worked on multiple diseases of row crops which cause billions of dollars of economic loss worldwide and are a food safety threat for millions of people. At Ohio State, he studied the influence of the weather and accumulation of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol in corn grain, a foundation for developing a fully operational forecasting system. Dalla Lana has worked on several studies involving the use of meta-analysis. He was also among the first to identify and conduct initial studies on tar spot of corn in Ohio. 

Dalla Lana holds a master's and a doctorate degree in plant pathology from The Ohio State University, a master's degree in agronomy from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and a bachelor's degree in agronomy from the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil.