By Marlene Fritz (208/364-4010 in Boise)

PARMA, Idaho–Brad Geary will join the faculty of the University of Idaho College of Agriculture in January as its Parma-based crop management specialist in potatoes and onions.

Geary, currently completing his Ph.D. in plant pathology at Washington State University, has conducted graduate work on the three different organisms that cause late blight, silver scurf and black dot. He earned his master’s degree in plant pathology from WSU in 1997 and his bachelor’s degree in agronomy, crops and soils from Brigham Young University in 1995.

Reared on a Burley area farm and ranch, Geary says he chose a university career because it "provides me with a good opportunity to work with growers and to help them with problems in production agriculture."

Much of his master’s research was carried out in commercial potato fields in Washington and Oregon.

Geary’s appointment at the UI’s Southwest Idaho Research and Extension Center will be 80 percent extension and 20 percent research. He will address problems affecting potato and onion profitability, provide clientele with updated and timely educational information, and conduct applied research.