The Texas Plant Protection Association Poster Contest is not only an opportunity for graduate students to display their research but an invitation for communication and interaction between students and the attending professional agricultural industry.

Gary Schwarzlose, former TPPA president and VP-poster chair, and credited for increasing poster contest participation and conference attendance, says the competition is a valuable part of the annual meeting. 

"As individuals in the industry, whether university, extension or industry, we never get to see the graduate students or undergraduates unless we see them in the field. This is a great way for us to learn something about them, see what they're doing, meet them, have them talk to us and get that interaction."

See, Juan Landivar receives Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award

Twenty-two Texas A&M graduate students and seven industry participants lined the center aisle of the exhibit hall with their large, laminated posters displaying their research, results and accompanying images and or graphs. The competition awards students in master's and Ph.D. categories with cash prizes.

Schwarzlose, Bayer Crop Science senior technical service rep for Texas, says bringing the next generation into the agriculture industry is important. "This industry is changing. Used to, you would start with a company and stay with that company 30, 40, 50 years. But a lot of the individuals in this organization and in agriculture, we're getting past that 50-year mark. We're seeing retirement on the horizon and we need somebody to come in and replace us."

Awarded the 2019 Ray Smith Leadership Award, Schwarzlose says when he visits with graduates, whether on behalf of agriculture or TPPA, he tells them not be a single person. "Don't just be an entomologist. Don't just be a weed specialist. Be somebody that a company wants to hire. Be the person who covers all kinds of different activities. Understand new technology. Be the IT specialist, even if you're on a small scale, you're going to become bigger and more valuable to a company because of it."

Poster winners

Poster Contest winners are announced at the annual TPPA luncheon, along with winners of the annual Pest ID Contest moderated by Barron Rector, long-time TPPA member and Texas A&M University associate professor and Extension Range specialist. 

Outgoing TPPA President Clark Neely; First Place winner Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Program Specialist Dale Mott; Second Place winner Crop Consultant Gary Kennedy; and Third Place winner Agronomist Travis Janak.

The poster winners are as follows:

Master's category:

Ph.D. category:

“The TPPA board really appreciates the hard work from all of the students on these posters,” says TPPA VP-Post Chair Josh McGinty.  “This is a great opportunity for them to share the results of their research with the ag industry in Texas and for them to interact with growers, consultants, and industry personnel.”

Pest ID Contest, out of 113 participants, the following placed: