Author: Min Lin

Dr. Christina Cowger is a small grains pathologist with the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and a professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her research focuses on the epidemiology and sustainable management of diseases of wheat and barley, especially powdery mildew, Fusarium head blight, Septoria nodorum blotch (SNB), and barley yellow dwarf virus. Dr. Cowger has contributed to the identification of numerous sources of resistance to cereal diseases, as well as illuminating the etiology of those diseases and the population dynamics of the pathogens. She coordinates the USDA SNB screening nursery and is active in the US Wheat & Barley Scab Initiative.