Joyce Loper

Joyce joined the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology in 1987 as an Assistant Professor (Courtesy).  That same year, she began a 30 year career as a Research Plant Pathologist with USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory (HCRL) on the Oregon State University (OSU) campus in Corvallis.  Her research focused on plant-associated bacteria, including biological control of plant disease, microbial ecology, identification and function of bacterial secondary metabolites, and genomics.  She served as a mentor for more than 80 OSU undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.  Joyce served in a number of leadership positions in the USDA, including Research Leader of the HCRL, Assistant Director of the Pacific West Area, and Scientific Quality Review Officer, overseeing the peer review of all of the agency’s research nationwide. She also served on many editorial boards; advisory boards for the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology, EPA, and the National Academy of Sciences; panels for federal granting agencies; and in several leadership positions in the American Phytopathological Society.  In 2016, Joyce retired from the USDA-ARS and joined OSU’s College of Agricultural Science as an Associate Dean, where she served for six years.  Joyce’s accomplishments have been recognized by numerous awards, including Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society (2001), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007), USDA-ARS Distinguished Senior Scientist of the Year (2014), and USDA-ARS Science Hall of Fame (2016).