{"id":11,"date":"2022-09-21T10:59:38","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T17:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtvernon.wsu.edu\/vsp\/?page_id=11"},"modified":"2026-02-03T10:57:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:57:36","slug":"vsp-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mtvernon.wsu.edu\/vsp\/vsp-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegetable Seed Pathology Team"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n\t\nExtension<\/span><\/a><\/span> > Vegetable Seed Pathology Program<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>
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\r\n\t\tVegetable Seed Pathology Team\t<\/h1>\r\n\t\t<\/header>\r\n\n\n\n

Vegetable Seed Pathology team members in January 2019<\/strong> (left to right): Standing = Sanjaya Gyawali (Postdoctoral Research Associate), Mike Derie (Scientific Assistant Sr.), Lindsey du Toit (Program Director), Alex Batson (MS student), Eliza Mae Andrews (time-slip assistant), Barbara Holmes (Agricultural Research Technologist I), and Louisa Brouwer (Postdoctoral Research Associate). Seated = Ryan Solemslie (MS student), Kayla Spawton (PhD student), and Paul Morgan (Agricultural Research Technologist I).<\/p>\n\n\n

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VSP Program Director<\/a> | VSP Technical Staff<\/a> | VSP Project Managers<\/a>
Graduate Students<\/a> | MS in Agriculture Graduate Students<\/a> | Postdoctorates<\/a>
Graduate Interns<\/a> | Undergraduate Interns<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Program Director<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Lindsey du Toit<\/strong> grew up in KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa, where she completed her undergraduate education at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg (UNP) in 1991 with a major in plant pathology. While at the UNP, Drs. Mike Wallis, Fritz Rijkenberg, and Mark Laing had a wonderful influence on Lindsey\u2019s decision to pursue her education in plant pathology. Lindsey then completed her MS (1995) and PhD (1998) degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), majoring in plant pathology. Her PhD dissertation was on field and epidemiological aspects of common smut of sweet corn caused by Ustilago maydis<\/em>, under the direction of Dr. Jerald Pataky. During her time in Illinois, Lindsey interned at the Plant Clinic of the UIUC for five growing seasons, supervised by Nancy Pataky.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>\n\n

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Lindsey\u2019s first position after graduate school was as the diagnostician for the Plant & Insect Diagnostic Lab at the Puyallup Research & Extension Center of Washington State University (WSU), from 1998 to 2000. Lindsey was then hired as an Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist E2 in vegetable seed pathology for WSU in August 2000, based at the WSU Mount Vernon NWREC. Lindsey was promoted to Associate Professor & Extension Specialist E3 in 2006, and to Professor & Extension Specialist E4 in 2013. The focus of Lindsey\u2019s vegetable seed pathology research and extension program is on the etiology, biology and management of diseases that affect vegetable seed crops grown in the Pacific Northwest USA. Small-seeded vegetable seed crops such as spinach, brassicas, carrot, onion, radish, and table beet are the focus of Lindsey\u2019s program. In 2012, Lindsey started teaching a summer graduate course, Field Plant Pathology (Pl P 525), in the WSU Department of Plant Pathology. Lindsey received the Early Career Award of the Pacific Division of the American Phytopathological Society (APS) in 2006, the WSU Kenneth J. Morrison Extension Award in 2009 for outstanding contributions to the improvement of Washington State\u2019s crop production, the WSU CAHNRS Interdisciplinary Team Award in 2012 for co-leading the Pacific Northwest Vegetable Extension Group (PNW VEG), and the APS Syngenta Award in 2013 for outstanding contribution to research and extension in plant pathology. In 2014, Lindsey was elected to serve as APS Councilor-at-Large (2014-2017), and in 2017 she was elected as Vice President of APS (2017-2021 APS presidential team). In 2018, Lindsey received the Alfred Christianson Distinguished Professorship in Vegetable Seed Science. Lindsey was elected as a Fellow of APS in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n