Amy Wright
Kira Bowen
Two College of Agriculture professors have been elected to leadership positions in their respective international scientific societies.
Plant pathology professor Kira Bowen assumed her position as vice president of the American Phytopathological Society in early August following the organization’s 2016 annual meeting in Tampa. Bowen’s election to that office sets the stage for her to assume the position of president of the society in 2019.
With more than 4,600 members worldwide, the organization is dedicated to the study and control of plant diseases. In her research program at Auburn, Bowen focuses on small-grain and peanut diseases and on aflatoxins in peanuts and corn.
Meanwhile, Amy Wright has been elected vice president of the American Society for Horticultural Science’s Education Division and will begin her two-year term at the end of the society’s annual meeting in Hawaii in September 2017. Wright is the Harry G. Ponder Professor of Horticulture in the Department of Horticulture at Auburn and since May has served as interim associate dean for instruction in the College of Agriculture.
The horticulture organization, which boasts more than 2,500 members from all 50 states and 60 countries, is the world’s foremost professional society for horticultural science and promotes national and international interest in scientific research and education in horticulture.
