Alyssa Koehler, Extension Field Crops Pathologist; akoehler@udel.edu
My name is Alyssa Koehler and I am the new UD Field Crops Extension Plant Pathologist. I look forward to meeting everyone and working with you and the Extension team at Carvel to help address plant disease issues in Delaware. I began working in plant pathology in 2009. I worked in a nematology lab for three years, spent a summer working with fungal diseases of pineapple, and worked with USDA APHIS developing pest risk models. I then went on to complete my Master’s degree at North Carolina State University working on diseases of tobacco and Rhizoctonia species in home lawn turfgrass. As part of my M.S., I began working with a new crop called stevia. This project continued to develop and I completed my Ph.D. at NCSU researching diseases of stevia and assessing its viability as a new specialty crop in the US.
The main goal of my research is to reduce crop loss due to disease through applied field trials and laboratory investigations to better understand host biology. I joined UD in October 2018 and look forward to my first full field season here working with soilborne and foliar pathogens in small grains, corn, and soybeans. This year I will be conducting fungicide efficacy trials and will be active around the state surveying for soilborne pathogens in soybeans. My office is located at the Carvel Center in Georgetown. You can reach me at akoehler@udel.edu or (302) 856.1845, ext 571. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.