Tom Gulya
Tom Gulya was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and raised in northern New Jersey. He served his country in the U.S. Army and went on to the University of Delaware getting a Bachelor of Science degree in General Agriculture. Tom’s passion for plant pathology led him to Iowa State University where he obtained his Masters and PhD in plant pathology. He started working for the USDA Agricultural Research Service in September 1978. Tom was the sole USDA pathologist working on sunflower, based in Fargo, ND, for over 35 years. His research searched for resistance to all sunflower pathogens threatening the U.S. crop, including downy mildew, rust, Verticillium, Phomopsis and Sclerotinia. Over the course of his career, Tom co-authored over 100 germplasm releases, a majority of which dealt with disease resistance. When resistance was less than effective, he identified fungicides to complement resistance leading to the registration of two seed treatments for downy mildew. Diseases affecting sunflower are worldwide, and he cooperated with researchers in many countries, often hosting them for months in his lab. This international cooperation was recognized with the Pustovoit Award from the International Sunflower Association in 2016. The Pustovoit Award, named after renowned Russian sunflower breeder V.S. Pustovoit, is conferred upon individuals who have made major contributions to the scientific and or technological advancement of the global sunflower industry. The thing Tom liked best about working on sunflower was two-fold. Being a “new crop” there was minimal work that had been done, thus lots of opportunities and second, that the research community, both domestically and globally, was relatively small and very open and sharing which continues to this day.
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