Professor Robert L. Gilbertson has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis since 1990. He earned his B.S. degree in wildlife biology in 1978 and an M.S. degree in plant pathology in 1981 from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Colorado State University in 1985. From 1986-1990 he was a postdoctoral research associate and assistant scientist in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he worked on international projects in Brazil and the Dominican Republic. At UC Davis, Dr. Gilbertson has established a productive and internationally recognized research program in seed pathology and plant virology. He also has continued his efforts in international agriculture, and has had projects in counties in East and West Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. He is one of the foremost experts on the detection, characterization, genetics and integrated pest management of geminiviruses, a group of single-stranded DNA viruses that is the largest recognized family of viruses and includes members that cause many economically important diseases worldwide, including California. He has been recognized for his research excellence and impact with numerous awards, including Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Phytopathological Society (APS). In 2015, he was the recipient of the UC Davis Oscar Lorenz Award for meritorious service to the California vegetable industry. Dr. Gilbertson is a dedicated and effective teacher who has mentored over 25 graduate students since coming to UC Davis, and has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate level courses. These courses reflect Dr. Gilbertson’s breath of knowledge and experience in plant pathology, and have included Introduction to Plant Pathology, Introduction to Integrated Pest Management, Plant Bacteriology, Plant-Virus-Vector-Interactions, Advanced Plant Pathology Laboratory, and the field course, Diseases of Field, Fruit, Nut and Vegetable Crops. His service activities have included being Editor-in-Chief of the international journal, Phytopathology, and serving as Associate Director of the campus Controlled Environment Facility (CEF) and on College and University personnel committees, including the Committee on Academic Personnel (CAP).