PVGA Annual Award Recipient 2007 – Alan A. MacNab
Dr. Alan MacNab was the extension vegetable pathologist at Penn State for the last 35 years and was known by growers across the state for his presentations at both winter and summer extension grower meetings.
He pioneered the development of tomato disease forecasting systems which enabled growers to lengthen their fungicide spray schedules when the weather was not favorable to disease development or to tighten their spray schedules when weather conditions favored disease development. The system requires the collection of weather data from different areas of the state and at least weekly updates to growers – both of which required a great deal of personal effort and dedication on Dr. MacNab’s part. His last major research grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture was designed to fine-tune the process of using National Weather Service weather data from around the state for the disease forecasting system – thus eliminating the need for maintaining numerous weather stations around the state.