Congratulations to our Fresno State Plant Science Department students Michael Urner and Omar Abulghanam who placed first and second in the research poster competition at the California Plant & Soil Conference, which was coordinated by the American Society of Agronomy California Chapter & UC Cooperative Extension. Urner continued his study of a new quantitative PCR assay test under the guidance of Fresno State faculty Dr. Margaret Ellis (and others) to detect a pathogenic soil borne fungus, which causes wilt in commercial cotton fields in California. Abulghanam (second place) studied the impact of diverse cover crops on yield performance in Central Valley table grape vineyards. Amazing job to the other strong candidates for the poster competition that included fellow plant science students Manjot Singh, Pedro Hatem Squiapati, Mauricio Soriano, and Idalia Navarro. Special thanks also goes to faculty Dr. Ranjit Riar for his work helping coordinate the poster event with students fro...