This week, the Texas Plant Protection Association hosted its 32nd conference but its first virtual meeting, "Resilient Agriculture: Healthy Farms for a Healthy Future."

Specialists and agricultural industry representatives updated more than 300 attendees throughout the three-day, online conference about the latest issues impacting agriculture. (Farm Press will follow up with articles regarding some of those presentations.)

At the conclusion of the meeting, TPPA announced the 2020 award winners. "This is the 18th year we've gotten to honor outstanding members who have made special contributions to the Texas Plant Protection Association, both to their profession and Texas agriculture," says TPPA President Adam Hixon, BASF, Lubbock. 

The awards and their recipients are as follows:

TPPA also recognized Hixon for his service along with "handing over of the gavel" to incoming TPPA President Josh McGinty.

See, Bob Whitney named 2020 Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement recipient

"Thank you to all of you for sticking with us through this virtual format," Hixson says upon receiving a plaque for his service. "I know there were some things we had to learn, even change our mindset, and for the most part, I think it went fairly well. We got through it."

Hixon also expressed his appreciation of the conference sponsors and moderators. "We knew it would be a tall task when we made the decision back in August (to go virtual), but everyone stepped up to the plate and worked as a team to make it happen."

The 2020 TPPA Poster winners also were announced. "This year we had 29 posters submitted and 25 posters took part in the poster competition, which we split between master's and Ph.D.," says TPPA Poster Chair Ronnie Schnell, Texas A & M AgriLife Research and Extension, College Station.

The winning posters and the students' three-minute poster presentations are included in this gallery.