Jonathan Jacobs, associate professor of emerging infectious disease ecology in the Department of Plant Pathology, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, has been awarded a 2024-2025 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Uruguay for “Investigating emerging and ongoing threats to U.S. and Uruguay cereal production.” During fall 2024 and spring 2025, for two two-month stays, Jacobs will be associated with the Insituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA) and working at two locations. First, at INIA La Estanzuela with Dr. Silvia Pereyra and second at Udelar (Universidad de la Republica) with Professor Maria Inés Siri.

“Pathogenic microorganisms cause diseases of human, animals and plants. In plant-based agriculture, pathogens limit crop production. Drs. Pereyra and Siri recently described a new plant pathogen of wheat called Xanthomonas prunicola. My expertise is defining the nature of plant pathogen outbreaks like they have seen with X. prunicola, and we started a collaboration to work on this emerging plant disease,” Jacobs explained.

Jacobs has three primary objectives as part of his project. “For the first objective, I will work with Dr. Pereyra to screen wheat germplasm for resistance to this new pathogen. My team works to develop diagnostics to emerging threats to agriculture, and for the second objective, I will be working at both INIA an Udelar to create diagnostic tools for this and related wheat pathogens,” Jacobs noted.

Since he’s fluent in Spanish, the final important objective for Jacobs is to engage with local Uruguayan farmers to inform them about wheat diseases and also train students at Udelar.

A long-term goal for Jacobs is to develop an international-based course to bring Ohio State students to Udelar and Uruguay to survey agricultural production. He’s also interested in creating opportunities for student research exchange between the universities.

Fulbright Program

For more information about the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, visit fulbright.osu.edu or contact Joanna Kukielka-Blaser.

This story was originally published by the Office of International Affairs on April 3, 2024.