Heather Slinn
I’m a microbial ecologist working jointly with an agro-chemical company (Syngenta) to better understand how soil microorganisms interact with wheat to affect Fusarium disease resistance. Specifically, I’m interested in suppressive soils which are defined as soils that, through the mediation of microorganisms, exhibit less disease that would be expected given the presence of a pathogen. With the identification of beneficial soils, we can look to better understand factors that generate these types of soils and how to exploit them.