Dr. Gary Secor is a native of Bozeman, Montana, and received both his BS and MS degrees from Montana State University. He received his PhD degree in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Davis in 1977. He has been at North Dakota State University since 1978 and is a Professor in the Plant Pathology Department. His main areas of research have been potato disease diagnosis, disease management, biotechnology, and variety development. He served as interim director of the potato breeding program at NDSU for three years. Recent work has concentrated on late blight management, fungicide resistance management in potatoes and sugar beets, post-harvest diseases of potatoes, the expanding host range of Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium yellows disease of sugarbeets and unraveling the zebra chip disease complex of potatoes. He is a frequent speaker at grower meetings in US and internationally. He received the Meritorious Service Award from the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association in 1996 and the Recognition Award from the Latin American Potato Association in 2004. Dr. Secor is assisted in the field by Dean Peterson and in the laboratory by Viviana Rivera. Dr. Secor teaches Introductory Plant Pathology with Dr. LeBoldus and the virology and nematology components of the course Bacterial, Nematode and Viral Diseases of Plants.

Potato disease diagnosis, disease management, biotechnology, and variety development