Dr. Kevin Ong Named Director of the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory

Dr. Kevin Ong, a Texas AgriLife Extension Service plant pathologist, has been named director of the Texas Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.

Ong replaces the laboratory’s founder, Dr. Larry Barnes, who retired at the end of August, said Dr. David Appel, associate department head in plant pathology and microbiology at Texas A&M University.

“We were lucky to have Larry here to establish such a good diagnostic clinic, and we were lucky to have had Kevin here to take over,” Appel said.

Ong will oversee this nationally acclaimed laboratory in College Station that has provided diagnostic services for the state since 1981, Appel said.

The laboratory is responsible for providing AgriLife Extension education efforts in diseases of greenhouse crops, nursery crops, landscape ornamental plants and indoor plants, he said. Biosecurity issues also have been added to the clinic’s list of responsibilities.

“Larry left big shoes to fill,” Ong said, “but I’m looking forward to the new challenge.”

Prior to his new appointment, Ong spent six years as an AgriLife Extension urban plant pathologist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1993 from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree in biology in 1997 from Temple University and a doctorate degree in plant pathology in 2001 from Clemson University.

“Kevin has a terrific personality to work with our clientele,” Appel said. “And he’s got a very strong background in plant pathology.

“We just felt there was nobody better anywhere in the country that would be able to step in and live up to the standards that have been set out there,” he said.

Colleagues around the state will applaud Ong’s appointment as they celebrate Barnes’ fine career, Appel said.

Barnes, who earned his doctorate degree from Texas A&M in 1983, spent 27 years overseeing the diagnostic laboratory.

“He consolidated all of the diagnostic efforts into one lab and built it up from scratch to become one of the premier diagnostic labs in the country,” Appel said. “It is recognized as such by his peers.”

Barnes also is recognized as the best ornamental plant pathologist in the state, Appel said. He has done a great deal of applied research on disease control involving several ornamentals. He has the respect of professionals in the nursery industry and hundreds of volunteer Master Gardeners who he helped train over the years.

Always modest, Barnes is quick to point out that the laboratory was the vision of his former supervisor, Dr. Wendell Horne, Appel said.

“But I’m not sure that even Wendell ever dreamed that it would become one of the biggest and busiest diagnostic labs in the country,” he said.

Story by Mike Jackson