Dr. Hanu R. Pappu is a professor and the Chuey Endowed Chair of Plant Pathology, and holds the President Samuel H. Smith Distinguished Professorship at Washington State University (WSU), Pullman, WA, USA. He is a graduate faculty member of the university’s interdisciplinary PhD program in Molecular Plant Sciences.
Dr. Pappu’s research interests and expertise include characterization and control of viral diseases of crop plants; development of environmentally friendly and sustainable IPM strategies for reducing the impact of destructive viral diseases of crops; capacity building in developing countries; and technology transfer. Crops of interests and expertise include cereals/small grains, legumes, and vegetables. Specific areas of interest are genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, genome editing approaches for virus resistance, virus diagnostics, and host-virus interactions. His current research focus is on the biology and molecular biology of aphid- and thrips-transmitted viruses of vegetables, legumes, and ornamentals. Prior to his current position at WSU, Prof. Pappu worked as a staff biotechnologist at USDA-APHIS in MD.
Dr. Pappu served as the Chair of the Plant Pathology Department at WSU from 2008 to 2013. As chair, he provided leadership and administrative oversight to the state-wide research, extension and outreach programs in plant pathology and administered the graduate program (MS and PhD) in plant pathology. He served as the director of the plant pathology graduate program for six years.
Professor Pappu published more than 210 refereed journal articles, several invited, review articles/book chapters, and gave numerous invited presentations at national and international conferences. He obtained more than US$ 6 million in extra-mural grants from federal, regional and state funding agencies over the last five years.
Prof. Pappu received several national and international awards including the Alexander vonHumboldt Research Prize from the Humboldt Foundation of Germany, Dr. BP Pal Distinguished Chair Award, Fulbright Distinguished Chair, Fulbright Scholar and Fulbright Specialist awards from the US Fulbright Commission, and two OECD Fellowships from the European Union, CAHNRS Dean’s Meritorious Service Award, and WSU Advisor of the Year Award, and was nominated by the students for the WSU Mentor of the Year Award. Most recently (2015), Dr. Pappu was elected Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society (APS).
Dr. Pappu teaches a graduate course in plant virology, team teaches a graduate course on plant-pathogen interactions, team teaches an undergraduate course on ag food systems, and co-teach another undergraduate course, General Plant Pathology and is actively involved in graduate student training. Twelve graduate students (11 PhD and 1 MS) graduated with advanced degrees in last 15 years under Dr. Pappu’s supervision. He mentored more than 20 post-doctoral fellows and visiting scientists.
Dr. Pappu served on the grant panels of USDA NIFA, The US National Academies, and as a reviewer for the US National Science Foundation. He served as an expert committee evaluation team for USAID, and external evaluator of research projects in Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Hungary, Poland, and Uganda. He is serving as an academic editor for PLoS ONE, and as an associate editor for five international plant pathology journals.
Dr. Pappu has highly productive international research collaborations that include projects with scientists in Azerbaijan, Australia, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lithuania, Mauritius, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru and Turkey on insect-transmitted viruses of cereals, legumes, and vegetables, and viruses of nursery, landscape, and ornamentals.