Purdue News

McCoy Award winner to present distinguished lecture Oct. 31

Gregory B. Martin, associate professor of agronomy, will speak on "Pathogen Recognition and Signal Transduction in Plant Disease Resistance" at 3:30 p.m. in Fowler Hall, Stewart Center. The one-hour talk is open to all faculty and students. A reception for Martin will be held in the Stewart Gallery immediately following the talk.

Martin is the winner of the 1997 Herbert Newby McCoy Award, presented to a Purdue student or faculty member for outstanding contributions to science.

His talk will feature highlights from his work, which focuses on understanding the molecular basis of disease resistance in plants. Most of his work has been with tomato bacterial speck disease, which is caused by the organism Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato.

"The Herbert Newby McCoy Award is given to the student or faculty member of Purdue University making the greatest contribution of the year to science," said Luis Proenza, vice president for research and dean of Purdue's Graduate School. "Nominated by colleagues and selected by representatives of the faculties and the president of the university, it is the most prestigious research award given by Purdue."

Martin's research over the past five years at Purdue has led to the development of a comprehensive model to explain the molecular basis of bacterial speck disease resistance. The model also shows how plants that are resistant to disease recognize disease-causing microbes, a development that may someday lead to crops that are better able to resist disease naturally.

By understanding the mechanism of disease resistance in plants, Martin said scientists may be able to improve the stability of their resistance, and move that trait into more crop plants.

Martin joined the Purdue faculty in 1992. He received a bachelor's degree in crop science from Michigan State University, and his master's and doctoral degrees in genetics at that university's Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory.

Martin held a National Science Foundation plant biology fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at Cornell University. In 1995, he was awarded a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship. His research is supported by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Monsanto.

The Herbert Newby McCoy Award was established in 1964 by Ethel Terry McCoy in memory of her husband, a Purdue alumnus. The McCoy lecture series later was established to honor the recipient of the award and to present his or her research to the Purdue community.
CONTACT: Gregory Martin, (765) 494-4790; e-mail, gmartin@dept.agry.purdue.edu.

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu

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