Purdue’s Dr. Darcy Telenko Wins Prestigious Award for Helping Corn and Soybean Growers Fight Crop Diseases
For Indiana corn and soybean growers, timely disease information can make the difference between protecting yield potential and suffering costly losses. It’s that grower-focused commitment to applied research and Extension that has earned Purdue University plant pathologist Dr. Darcy Telenko one of the top honors from the North Central Division of the American Phytopathological Society (APS).
Telenko, associate professor of botany and plant pathology and an Extension plant pathologist at Purdue University, has received the 2026 North Central Division Mid-Career Award, recognizing outstanding contributions in plant pathology through research, Extension, teaching or industry. The award honors scientists who have made significant contributions to the discipline while typically being 10 to 20 years beyond earning their terminal degree.
The recognition highlights Telenko’s work translating complex plant disease research into practical management recommendations that help farmers make informed decisions in the field.
“Dr. Telenko’s outstanding contributions to plant pathology through impactful research, extension and service help growers and agricultural stakeholders make informed disease management decisions, strengthening crop production systems across Indiana and the North Central region,” Purdue’s Department of Botany and Plant Pathology said in announcing the award.
Presented by the North Central Division of APS, the honor includes a certificate, a $300 monetary award and formal recognition during the division’s annual meeting. APS is an international professional organization representing more than 3,600 plant pathology scientists and practitioners in nearly 90 countries. For more than a century, the organization has advanced research and education aimed at protecting agriculture, food security and plant health worldwide.
Telenko’s research program centers on developing sustainable, economically sound disease management strategies for Indiana’s field crops. Her interdisciplinary work examines both soilborne and foliar diseases affecting agronomic crops, with research emphasizing disease detection and monitoring, fungicide resistance, evaluation of new crop protection tools, host resistance and emerging biopesticide technologies.
The research serves as the foundation for an extensive Extension program that delivers timely disease alerts and integrated management recommendations to growers, crop advisers and agribusiness professionals across Indiana.
That outreach has also made Telenko a familiar face and voice to many producers. She has appeared regularly on Hoosier Ag Today’s Purdue Crop Chat Podcast, alongside host Eric Pfeiffer, Purdue Extension corn specialist Dr. Dan Quinn, and soybean specialist Dr. Shaun Casteel, discussing tar spot, southern corn rust and other disease threats affecting Indiana corn and soybean production.
She also leads the Telenko Lab at Purdue and manages the Indiana Field Crop Pathology website, an online disease-monitoring resource that tracks confirmed cases of tar spot and southern corn rust on county-by-county maps across Indiana. The tool helps producers gauge disease pressure near their operations and make timely fungicide and crop management decisions throughout the growing season.
Telenko earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1999, a master’s degree from Southern Illinois University in 2002 and a doctorate in plant pathology from North Carolina State University in 2005.
The Mid-Career Award adds to a growing list of honors recognizing her contributions to agricultural research and Extension. In 2022, she received Purdue Extension’s Eric G. Sharvelle Distinguished Extension Specialist Award, Purdue University’s Faculty Engagement Scholar Award and was part of a team recognized with a Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America.
For growers facing increasingly complex disease challenges and evolving pathogen pressures, Telenko’s research and outreach continue to provide science-based guidance designed to improve crop health, protect yields and strengthen the long-term sustainability of Midwestern crop production.
“}]]