0:03  
Jim: Hello and welcome back to Plantopia. Plantoopia is the plant health podcast produced by the American Phytopathological Society. And I'm your host, Jim Bradeen. I'm a professor of plant pathology and associate vice president at Colorado State University. And today it is my distinct privilege to talk with one of my colleagues at Colorado State University professor Jan Leach. Jan is a University Distinguished Professor of plant pathology, and also serves as the Associate Dean for Research in the CSU College of Agricultural Sciences. And Jan has a very long and significant list of impacts in the field of plant biology. With apologies to Jan and our listeners, I'm going to take a few moments to share but rather lengthy bio for Jan highlights some of the impacts that she's had. So Jan earned her undergraduate and master's degree in microbiology from the University of Nebraska Lincoln and a PhD in plant pathology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. And she then postdoc at the East Moline Research Station in the UK before joining the faculty at Kansas State in 1984. And Dan rose to the rank of full professor in 1995. While at Kansas State, Jan became very widely recognized for her groundbreaking research on Xanthomonas oryzae the causal agent of Bacterial Blight on rice. And following a stint at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, Jan joined the faculty in the Department of Agricultural biology at Colorado State University in 2004. And she has served as the associate dean for research since 2015. So Jan has earned numerous significant awards throughout her career, and I'm going to name just a few of those. Jan holds the title of University Distinguished Professor at CSU, and she's also a fellow of the American phytopathological Society, the American Academy of microbiology and the American Association of the advancement of science. In 2020, Jan was awarded the award of distinction from the American phytopathological society. And this award is the highest honor that APS bestows, it's only presented on rare occasions, to recognize truly exceptional contributions to plant pathology. And most recently, in 2021, Jan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and there actually many other awards that we just don't have time to mention. Jan's research contributions in our field are nearly legendary. She was the first to describe tal effectors in Santa Monica Rosie. She's led research in the area of our gene AVR gene interactions on this is research that's been important to understanding the basis of our gene durability. And Jan if I'm not mistaken, I think you're widely credited with coining the term phyto bio, which captures the many micro and macro biotic interactions with plants. And today Jen's lab focuses on how plants respond to both biotic and combined biotic abiotic stresses with an emphasis on bacterial pathogens of plants. Their group also studies microbiome mediated interactions between the Russian wheat aphid and host plants. Jan is a very effective and generous student and postdoc mentor and she has trained several dozen mentees has been a strong advocate for women in our field, something that we'll talk about in just a moment. And Jan has contributed through important service activities to our discipline. She served for 16 years on the APS Public Policy Board and during that time, let the launch of the phyto biomes initiative. She served as editor in chief of the APS journal molecular plant microbe interactions, she was a longtime co editor of the annual review of phyto pathology. And get this Jan is the only individual who has served as president of the International Society for molecular plant microbe interactions, the American phytopathological Society and the International Society for Plant Pathology. Specifically, Jan led ISMPMI from 1999 to 2001; APS from 2006 to 2007; And she is the current president of ISPCP since 2018, and I'm only highlighting the very few of the many, many contributions that Jan has made to our field through her groundbreaking research and extensive leadership. Jan, thank you so much for being on Plantopia.

4:40  
Jan: Well, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

4:43  
Jim: Unfortunately, I took so much time highlighting your bio, we're out of time. So thank you for being our guest today. 

4:48  
Jan: Anytime. 

4:52  
Jim: Now, it's always a pleasure to chat with you and we really do appreciate this opportunity to highlight somebody of your caliber and impact in our field. And I'm gonna start off today with a question I often ask on Plantopia, why plant pathology? How did you get into this field? How did you discover plant pathology? And how did you end up where you're at today?

5:14  
So it's many years ago because I I've been around for a while, but I, as you said, I did my degrees in microbiology. And in order to earn money to go to school, I worked in the plant pathology department at the University of Nebraska Lincoln was Jim Steadman and, and Hvidovre. And I got enthralled by the research that they were doing and how I could apply my microbiology. So back in my era, if you were a microbiologist, and you were a woman, the path that they mainly sent you down was either to be a lab technician, sort of a diagnostic technician, and inhuman medical lab, or a nurse. And those are great professions. But they weren't really what I wanted to do. So it was really interesting that I worked with Jim and and that they would say to me, Well, you could do so much more. And you could become you know, a leader in the field of plant pathology, you could go out into the field to do research, and ask questions and not just take orders from other people. And so I got really excited about those opportunity. And that was what really drove me into the field is my undergraduate research experience. 

6:30  
Jim: That sounds like mentors have been a really key part of your your own professional development. Are there other folks that have played key mentoring roles?

6:38  
Jan: Oh, absolutely. Jim and Anne, were wonderful because they brought different perspectives to the table. And they sent me in different directions. And I'll never forget Jim Steadman. He said to me, Well, if you want to go into Plant Pathology, you can either go to two different places, and work with two different people. And I ended up choosing Wisconsin working with Louisa Cara, who had been Jim's advisor, as a matter of fact, and Luis was an amazing advisor. He was not a micromanager. He gave you a problem. And he was there when you needed him to ask questions, but he would help, you know, whenever he could. But he definitely didn't micromanage. He said, You know, this is your problem, and you're here to solve it. And then Arthur Kelman, who I'm sure many of you don't know, because he passed away many years ago. But he was a wonderful personal mentor. When my father passed away. While I was a graduate student, Arthur stopped me in the hall one day and said, "Jan, how are you?" And I flipantly said, "Oh, I'm fine." He said, "No, Jan, how are you?" So he was just a very caring person. And, you know, through my career, I've had the advantage of having not only personal mentors, but also scientific mentors that were really great.

7:58  
Jim: That's wonderful if some mentors really have big impact in many small and big ways as well. And much of your career is really focused on international agriculture. Where did that interest come from? And where's it taking you over the years.

8:13  
Jan: I'm a kid from Nebraska, born and raised in Lincoln, and never had been outside the United States. And so when I finished my PhD, I've had the great fortune of being offered a postdoctoral fellowship at the East malling Research Station in Britain, which was funded by Guinness beer in the hops Marketing Board. And for a kid from Nebraska who had never been outside the United States, actually, I don't like beer, I prefer wine to take a beer fellowship was amazing. And it was an opportunity that I'd never had before I got first of all, I lived in a country where I wasn't a native. And they used to tease me that Americans hadn't spoken English for 200 years. So my language problems were there. I was able to interact with growers, hop producers. And I had never done that before. That was really exciting. And then also the industry, the beer producing industry. So it was good. It taught me that I could stand on my own two feet and be a scientist. I made great friends who were still remained friends to this day. And that was an exciting experience. That was my first taste of the international world. And then when I was offered the position at Kansas State University, I was told that, at that time, we were called diseased physiologist, as a physiologist, I could choose my system. And so I thought to myself, I want to work on an important problem and in an important crop. And so I set out to my mentors and said, Okay, if you were starting over again, what would you work on? And Louie said to me, he would work on Sigatoka in banana or he's said I would work on rice Bacterial Blight, which to me was really appealing because I'm a microbiologist, I'm a bacterial person. So I got my important problem. And I thought, Well, is it genetically tractable? Because I knew I needed to make progress in it. And I thought, well, bacteria Danta Mona's, it should be genetically tractable. No one worked had really done any genetics in it at the time. And then rice is a diploid, it's not a hexaploid, like wheat, and my brain could handle it deployed, but not. So I started down that path, which of course, meant I was going to be working largely outside the United States. So that kind of sent me down the path. I contacted folks at the International Rice Research Institute and said, if I wanted to work on this problem, would you collaborate with me? And I was lucky. Because the director of Plant Pathology at the time, Tom Yael walked down the hall to a former classmate of mine from Wisconsin Hailong and said, Do you know this Jan leach person? Should we collaborate with her? And he said, Yes. And it's all history?

11:07  
Jim: And what what have you found to be the most satisfying aspect of your international research?

11:15  
Jan: The most satisfying aspect is that the research has been able to have an impact, I think. And also, I've made such wonderful connections and collaborators. And through those connections and collaborators, I've been able to help connect my students since other students in our department and in other departments to people. So it's built up quite a team of researchers around the world. And, you know, it's just it's so wonderful to think that if I had a question about something in China, or the Philippines or Japan, I have context, I can call and ask and get an answer very quickly.

11:54  
Jim: When I think about your career and your impact. Well, many things come to mind. But that network of folks across the globe with whom you've worked with whom you've supported, that really is front and center. In my mind, I think that's something you've done exceptionally well, and you talked about the importance of mentors in your own professional development, could you talk a little bit about your approach to mentoring students, or postdocs or other colleagues and particularly women that are working in your group?

12:25  
Jan: You know, I'm sure those of you who are parents understand that every single person is different and requires a different style of mentoring. And that was hard for me to learn. Because when, when we were trained, and I'm sure it's still true, we were not trained in how to mentor people or how to teach them. And so I think a lot of it comes from your heart. You know, these are people, these are your going to be your colleagues in the future, you need to help them succeed and do the best they can. And in particular, the female students that I've had, things have shifted a bit. But early on, there was a lack of confidence. And this old syndrome of Well, I don't really belong here. And so I think a lot of what we need to do in mentoring is to help our students in our postdocs and our young faculty colleagues, develop the confidence that I do belong here. I know my stuff. And I can make a difference. If I just apply myself, I always tell my students, I'm your cheerleader, I'm here to make sure that you succeed. And I succeed, if my students come out better than me, which is easy to do.

13:43  
Jim: It's a fantastic philosophy. And something you said a moment ago really definitely rings true in my experience, that the fact that that we all need different approaches, we need different things from our mentors, and it's sometimes hard to even know what that is both for the mentor and the mentee. I often comment that I, my former grad students, I think I have them all figured out exactly what they need the day after they graduate. So that's a real skill set that that I think, you know, our profession really need and thank you for all of your work and demonstrating what good mentorship really does look like in the field of plant pathology. I want to turn a bit to your research, there are actually so many aspects to your research impacts that I don't really know where to begin here. I guess first, I want to acknowledge that you've really your careers really spanned both the pathogen side and the plant side of plant pathology. And I think that's really noteworthy of something many of us strive to do, and I think relatively few of us actually ever accomplished. When you think about the research that you've done over the years. What stands out to you is something that you're especially proud of.

14:52  
Jan: Yeah, I'm especially proud of the fact that we were able to tie The plant response to the pathogen virulence and Adria are unsafe factors together, because when I started out, most people were either working on the plant or on the pathogen. And I was sort of at the beginning of that push, Luis and other folks had started it just say, we need to think of this as a system. We can't just think of it as you know, how does the plant respond to a protein from a bacteria? So I think that that has been the most satisfying part of the job is to see the interplay and the interaction of those organisms. But what I had to take a path that I wasn't ready to take, I was trained more in physiology and biochemistry. But I had to get more and more involved in genetic links, we started thinking about sort of broad spectrum resistance, how do you get resistance to multiple pathogen, I had to start thinking in terms of quantitative genetics. And that was a real stretch for my brain to move in that direction. But yet, it's really one of the more satisfying things that we've done is we've begun to help to understand how plants can be resistant to multiple pathogens at the same time, and what are the genes that are involved in that, and I really am thrilled by where our research is, now I'm frustrated by the fact that I won't have enough time to get to the answers, but I guess we never do delete, I see so many questions, opening up now that I would love to go down those different paths. And I just, I don't have the bandwidth or the time in my career to do that. So there's so much more to know.

16:42  
Jim: Good, good. Science always results in more questions and answers. 

16:47  
Jan: Yeah. 

16:47  
Jim: And so I think we can relate to what you're describing. I'm going to ask a question that's sort of of personal interest to mine is I've moved more into to administration, I find I have less and less time, less and less bandwidth to focus on my research interests. And you've been in the role of Associate Dean for Research for a number of years now. And you have shown no signs of slowing down as a scholar. How do you do that?

17:16  
Jan: Well, yeah, I have good people. I mean, that's the secret of all of us, right is to hire excellent scientists are graduate students, and postdocs, and good lab managers, they're, they're worth their weight in gold. Plus, I have a sympathetic Dean, who allows me to be 40% in the Dean's office and 60% in research. But, you know, as a research associate, Dean, I think my credibility stands on the fact that I can say, I know what it takes to write a grant, I know what it takes to read a paper, I know what it takes to train a cohort of students and postdocs. So I think it gives me some credibility with the faculty when I you know, say to them, Hey, let's get busy and write for grants and think about new experiments down the road to do and new collaborations. But I hope they see it as credible.

18:14  
Jim: I'm sure they do. Can you walk us through it day of Associate Dean for Research? 

18:20  
Jan: Ah, meeting meeting meeting. So I started yesterday at 5am in the morning with a call with the International Society of Plant Pathology Executive Committee, which is in five different countries. And then drove to work. And started with I'm chairing a search committee right now for the department heads or another department. And then also ideal with, for example, I have a small grants program that I run, so I've got the proposals, I now need to review and read and, and send them out for other people for review. I deal with in some cases when a PI is having issues with other PI's their co-PI's are, those are the hard things for me the interpersonal issues to deal with. And then I get to have a lab meeting with my group and understand here, what exciting science, you know, I live vicariously now through my students and postdocs, because I only get to do research through them. And I am a co-PI I on some large grants. And so we have the leadership meetings amongst the team leaders of the grant. So yeah, it's a it's an interesting day. I go home tired.

19:39  
Jim: Yeah, really, really impactful, incredible work. Thank you so much for what you do. It's important to our college to CSU and certainly to the discipline and plant psychology. So please know that we appreciate your efforts and thank you for helping us understand what was scope of your day looks like. And it's little embarrassing, maybe to go to the next line of questions. I wanted to know a bit more about your philosophy and approach to leadership and especially volunteerism, you've done so much outside of the classroom outside of the laboratory outside of your institution to support our discipline, why did you get involved in APS, APS leadership and the International Society for Plant Pathology?

20:25  
Jan: Yeah, and you know, it started with editor ships for the journals, I was associated, I went through the editor chain of events on in PMI, and in the old days in the, in APS, as an editor in chief, you were on council. Now, that's changed in the last many years. So that sort of set me into the room with all the leaders in our profession. And it was fascinating to watch the discussions that they were having, and to think about the impact that they were going to have on my career down the road. So for example, I remember sitting in the room when they were talking about starting journals, or adding on to the building and where headquarters was. And if you think about the wisdom of those people, and how their decisions have made our society stable for many, many years, whereas that is not necessarily true for other scientific societies. We've had some great leaders who made decision the right decision on should we start a new journal? Should we change the way we run our meetings? How should we run our publishing house. So that was exciting. And then once you get sucked in, you get sucked in. And so then I went in through the leadership team, and also through the Public Policy Board, which was, again, a fascinating experience, because it showed me the importance of us having a voice as scientists, as people who understand the needs of the farmers, and the needs of the research community. And taking that message to Washington, and helping them formulate legislation, which we did. The microbe microbial genome sequencing was an APS Public Policy Board led effort. So we worked as a team, and we were mentored at that time by Kelly Eversole, who was the lead of an agency that we worked with, that when we go to Washington, we don't only pitch plant pathology or plant health, we pitch agriculture in general, on that broader platform, and then inform them of why plant health or plant apology is important. So I learned so much by doing these volunteer roles. And all of this was applicable to how I run my lab. I mean, the lessons that I learned in hurting council members as president, which is the same thing I use in my lab meeting. So I think it's a win win situation to volunteer Plus, you get to know so many people, and you get to learn about why and how things are done so that you have a better picture of why you're why you're doing what you're doing and where you're why you're going where you're going.

23:24  
Jim: That makes perfect sense and begs the question, what advice do you have for early career professionals who maybe have been to an APS meeting? Maybe they've heard about APs? How can they get involved in APS leadership through volunteer opportunities?

23:41  
Jan: Yeah, that's an important question. They need to do that. But they need to do it gently and carefully. They don't need to rush in to a lot of things at once, they should start with some of the subject matter committees. I started out in the bacteriology committee too, because those give you a taste. And they're important committees because they help influence what's going to be on the agenda for the meetings or you help pull together literature and colleagues together to discuss important issues. So I would recommend that an early career professional, go baby steps, because you're balancing a lot on your plate as an early career professional and you cannot, you can only do so much. You need to be very careful in how you spend your time. You have to sleep.

24:37  
Jim: Excellent advice and one's career is really a marathon not a sprint. And I think your advice is spot on. That now you're also very involved in is Pp the International Society for Plant Pathology. In fact, you're the current president of that. What's new with isdp?

24:54  
Jan: Yeah, the International Society of Plant Pathology is an umbrella society just to give a little description for people who aren't familiar with it. So our society is comprised of over 60 individual society, which means that all of their members are by default members by ISPT, so you are a member of ISPT because APS is a member of ISPT. So the way we interact is quite different than APS, which is, is more, almost more one on one down to the person. And we work more with the societies themselves. So it's been a very different experience. For me, it's it's a different way of thinking and doing, we publish a journal in the Journal of Food Security, and it's a more Interdisciplinary Journal. But we also have a subject matter committees, and people from all over the world participate in a subject matter committee. It's been an exciting experience, because I had now learned how different societies do the same things that APS does that get a different scale, or for different audiences. We're working with the Polish society, for example, to help foster Ukrainian refugees who are plant pathologist and we've actually got a resiliency fund that's helping to support these scientists. So it's a different scale of activity than being a president of APs.

26:29  
Jim: And does ISTP have recurring conference?

26:33  
Jan: We do every five years, it will, it's changing every four years after this year. So our conferences this year in Lyon, France in August, and I expect to see you all there, and you just fly from the APS meeting in Denver, directly to Lyon, France.

26:50  
Jim: And that's the International Congress for Plant Pathology, right? 

26:54  
Jan: Yes, which is being organized by the French Society for Plant Pathology. They are the hosts like we were the hosts in Boston, APS was the host for the meeting in Boston, but the French societies and their international Planning Committee are putting together an excellent program. And the registration is open and abstracts are due by February 15.

27:15  
Jim: Yep. And that meeting is August 20 through the 25th in Lyon. 

27:20  
Jan: Yes. 

27:20  
Jim: And Lyon has great food. You got to go there recently, as I recall.

27:25  
Jan: Yes, I was to tour the convention center. It's a beautiful convention center and easy access, I think folks will really enjoy the meeting.

27:36  
Jim: Great. certainly looking forward to that. And I want to end on sort of a softball question, I guess. When you think about our discipline, the arc of our discipline, how it's changed over the years, and the current state of Global Affairs so that the various global challenges that we all share, what do you think the future holds? And what will plant pathology look like in 10 or 20 years or 50 years?

28:01  
Jan: You know, one of the things that I'm heartened by is that in the future, to solve problems, we're going to have to have bring diverse skill sets together. And I don't know of any profession more than Plant Pathology, where we've already been doing that we've had to do that. We've had to have epidemiologists, we've had to have computational scientists, we've always had to bring different disciplines to the table, because we recognized from the very beginning that solving plant health issues is complex. So I think in that regard, because we know how to collaborate, we know how to work with other kinds of scientists, plant pathology will be leaders in the field of plant health and the future and agriculture into the future. What I do worry about is that, you know, it's wonderful to have interdisciplinary training. But what I worry about is that we lose some of the needed expertise in areas like mycology or any Vittala algae. We don't have the depth of expertise, because we're broad. And I'm an example of someone who is really broadly trained. I've always had this concern that I don't know the subject matter deep enough. And I think that's something that we need to be very careful of, we need to know our system. Well, in order to solve the problems like I remembered was at Barbara McClintock that said, you need to have a feeling for the organism. And I think we'd need to have that and maintain this, Brett. So the challenge is for our future, scientists, future plant pathologists are much greater I think, and even you and I faced

29:51  
Jim: And I can't help but wonder if that breadth versus depth is really a pendulum that swings over time and there's certainly as then this pushed for more interdisciplinary perspectives in in science that too many positive impacts. But yeah, at some point, maybe we do reach this tipping point where you are eroding those the depth of knowledge and particular systems.

30:15  
Jan: And it's harder to keep that depth of knowledge there because everything is moving so fast.

30:21  
Jim: Very interesting. Well, I certainly share your perspective that plant biology is really well positioned to continue to evolve and meet challenges. It'll be very interesting to see where where we end up in 10, or 20 or 50 years.

30:34  
Jan: We'll see where your podcast isn't done in 10, 20 years.

30:37  
Jim: Yes, we'll be we'll be on episode or season 12, I think, by then. So. Jan, is there anything else you want our listeners to know?

30:48  
Jan: No, I think I've covered about everything. I think I've had an amazing career. And because I have had wonderful people to work with not only students, postdocs, and lab managers, but mentors, colleagues in both institutions that I've served at. So I think one piece of advice I've always given my students is look at the person across the bench from you, and talk to them. Because someday, they may not only become your long lasting collaborator, but they also may become your spouse.

31:25  
Jim: Well spoken. And there's a personal story there. So if you want to know more about that, maybe meet up with Jan aspb, in Lyon, and, and she'll tell you all about that. Jan, it's always a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much for everything that you do. And thank you for taking time to be a guest here on Plantopia.

31:48  
Jan: My pleasure. It's been wonderful. Thank you.

31:52  
Jim: Thanks so much. So we've just heard from Professor Jan Leach. Jan is a University Distinguished Professor of Plant Pathology at Colorado State University. And I'm Jim Bradeen, the host of Plantopia. Thank you so much for listening and we will talk to you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai