Winners of the National Cotton Disease Council Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation Awards competition at the recent 2009 Beltwide Cotton Disease Council meeting in San Antonio represented Auburn University and the University of Arkansas.

From left, Nick S. Sekora, Juan D. Castillo, Scott R. Moore and Juan de Dois Jarabab were recognized as winners in the Cotton Disease Council’s Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation Awards competition.

In the oral presentation competition, first place went to Nicholas S. Sekora, Auburn University, for “Delineating Mixed Populations of Rotylenchulus reniformis and Meloidogyne incognita with FAME Analysis.”

Auburn students Juan David Castillo and Scott R. Moore won second and third place, respectively, for “Antagonistic Potential of Arthrobotrys dactyloides, Dactylaria brochopaga, Fusarium oxysporum, and Paeciolmyces lilacinus for Population Reduction of the Reniform Nematode” and “Rotylenchulus reniformis Dispersal Patterns and Population fluctuations in a Soil Profile and Potential Influence of Rainfall.”

Honorable mention went to Juan de Dois Jarabab of the University of Arkansas for his presentation, “Temporal Study of the Interaction Between Meloidogyne incognita and Thielaviopsis basicola on Cotton.”

The awards program, sponsored by Bayer CropScience, is designed to encourage outstanding graduate work in cotton plant pathology and promote graduate student attendance at the National Cotton Council-coordinated Beltwide Cotton Conferences.

The 2009 Cotton Disease Council, chaired by Kathy Lawrence, Auburn University, was one of 11 cotton technical conferences that convened at the annual forum.