Dr. Srdjan Acimovic Joins the Hudson Valley Research Laboratory as Our New Tree Fruit Pathologist

We would like to welcome Dr. Srdjan Acimovic as the new tree fruit plant pathologist at the Hudson Valley Research Laboratory. Srdjan accepted the position offer on February 17th and plans to begin his employment in early April.

The incoming plant pathologist will be replacing Dr. Dave Rosenberger, recently retired in February 2014. During his retirement and transition in developing a new model of economic sustainability through increasing partnerships with the agricultural industry, Dave has continued to serve the region’s tree fruit growers with disease management advise and recommendations through his timely blog site and fruit school presentations.

Srdjan recently completed his PhD program at Michigan State University Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences Applied Insecticide Toxicology Laboratory & Pesticide Analytical Laboratory. He completed his Masters of Science in 2009, Phytopathology, University of Novi Sad, Serbia under Dr. Jelica Balaz.

His Masters Thesis was titled “Monitoring of Infection Intensity and Development of Specific Symptom Types in Apple Fire Blight”. His PhD project “Disease Management in Apples Using Trunk Injection Delivery of Plant Protective Compounds.” focused on a trunk injection approach and technology for disease and insect control in fruit trees. The projects encompassed applied and fundamental aspects of fruit tree trunk injection with conventional and alternative plant protective compounds. The research studied protective compound distribution properties in apple tree crown after trunk injection to control of apple scab (Venturia inaequalis) and fire blight (Erwinia amylovora) with SAR inducers and fungicides.

During his PhD program at Michigan State, Srdjan has worked under George Sunden and John Wise. Srdjan’s CV provides addition details of his Professional Appointments And Employment.

Dr. Acimovic’s presentation video A presentation to the selection committee is made available to become acquainted with his recent work in tree fruit pathology.

Handout of presentation slides, text and images

We look forward to having Srdjan stationed here in support of Hudson Valley to