Department History
Our Department Timelines
UK Department of Plant Pathology Timeline
1865 UK founded as Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) College of Kentucky University
1885 Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station established.
1889 Harrison Garman appointed Entomologist and Botanist (retired, ca. 1929).
Work included disease diagnosis, pathogen identification and management recommendations.
1908 College of Agriculture founded
1910 Agricultural Extension Service established in KY, one of the first in the U.S.
1918 M. Roe appointed as Assistant Plant Pathologist, in Department of Agronomy (one year appointment).
1919 WD Valleau* appointed first Professor of Plant Pathology, in Agronomy (retired, 1961).
1923 E. Johnson appointed Assistant Plant Pathologist (retired, 1966).
1931 L. Henson appointed (retired, 1974).
1936 H. Thornberry appointed (resigned, 1937).
Plant pathologists moved from basement of Agricultural Experiment Station Building to new Tobacco Research Laboratory.
1937 Stephen Diachun* appointed (retired, 1978).
1950 Richard Chapman appointed (retired, 1984).
1953 Granville Stokes appointed; became Associate Director of Ag Experiment Station, 1966 (retired, ca. 1993).
1960 Raymond Hampton appointed (resigned, 1970).
1962 R. Reinert appointed (resigned, 1967).
Christopher Litton (USDA-ARS; Research Specialist) transferred from Agronomy to Plant Pathology, (retired, ca. 1987).
Ph.D. offered in Biology with Plant Pathology “cooperating”.
1963 Department of Plant Pathology established with Richard Chapman as chairman.
John Oswald* appointed University President and Professor of Plant Pathology.
1964 Plant Pathology moved from the Tobacco Research Laboratory to the Agricultural Science Center - North building.
James Hendrix appointed (retired, 2004).
1965 C. Yang appointed (resigned, 1972).
First Ph.D. recipients (in Biology, Plant Pathology cooperating).
1966 Malcolm Siegel* appointed (retired, 1998).
1967 Ph.D. program in Plant Pathology established.
Harry Wheeler* appointed (retired, 1984).
Thomas Pirone* appointed (retired, 2001).
1968 First Ph.D. recipients in Plant Pathology.
Stephen Diachun became chairman.
John Shaw* appointed (retired, 2000).
Albert Williams appointed (transferred to Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, as chairman, 1975).
1971 John Hartman* appointed (retired, 2011).
1972 Said Ghabrial* appointed (retired, 2013).
Louis Shain appointed (retired, 1999).
1974 Joseph Kuc* appointed (retired, 1995).
1975 Shuh-Ji Sheen transferred from Agronomy (retired, 1991).
Richard Stuckey appointed (resigned, 1989).
1977 First full-time plant disease diagnostician hired
1978 Thomas Pirone became Department Chair
Richard Ferriss appointed (resigned, 1991).
1979 William Nesmith appointed (retired, 2004).
David Smith appointed (retired, 2012).
1982 Wayne Wilcox appointed (resigned, 1984); first Plant Pathology faculty member at Research and Education Center, Princeton.
1984 Donald Hershman appointed (retired 2015); Research and Education Center, Princeton.
Robert Shepherd* appointed (retired, 1996).
1985 Christopher Schardl* appointed.
1986 David Smith became Deparment Chair
1989 W. Walla appointed; served solely as Associate Dean for Extension (retired, 2001).
1990 Paul Vincelli* appointed.
1993 S. He appointed (resigned, 1995).
1996 Lisa Vaillancourt appointed; first female faculty member.
1997 Mark Farman appointed.
1999 Peter Nagy appointed.
2002 Michael Goodin appointed (deceased, 2020).
Pradeep Kachroo appointed.
2003 Plant Pathology moved from Ag Science-North to the Plant Science Building.
2005 Kenneth Seebold, Jr. appointed (resigned, 2014).
Doctoral program ranked #1 in nation in Academic Analytics’ Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index.
2006 Aardra Kachroo appointed.
2010 Again, ranked #1 by Academic Analytics.
2011 Christopher Schardl became Department Chair until 2023.
Nicole (Ward) Gauthier appointed.
2015 Emily Pfeufer appointed (resigned, 2021)
Carl Bradley appointed at Princeton
Tyler Dreaden, USDA FS, appointed Adjunct Professor
2016 Robert Louis Hirsch appointed
2017 Kiersten Wise appointed at Princeton
2023 Reddy Palli appointed interim Chair