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Media
Contact:
Mick Kulikowski,
News Services, 919/515-3470.
Oct.
21, 2002
NC State
Professor Wins Prestigious Tobacco Science Award
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Dr.
Thomas A. Melton of Raleigh, professor of plant
pathology and extension leader at North Carolina
State University, has been awarded the nation's
highest honor for tobacco research, the Philip
Morris USA Award for Distinguished Achievement
in Tobacco Science. The honor includes a medallion
and a cash award of $10,000.
The
award is presented yearly to a young tobacco scientist
for outstanding achievement in the development
of fundamental knowledge relating to tobacco and
tobacco products. Melton becomes the sixth NC
State professor to receive the award since its
inception in 1967.
Melton
leads the largest and most comprehensive applied
tobacco pathology program in the United States.
His research has earned him an international reputation
as one of the leading tobacco pathologists in
the world.
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Dr.
Thomas A. Melton
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The
award recognizes his contributions to tobacco disease
management. Melton worked on the epidemic of the tobacco
mosaic virus that plagued tobacco growers in the eastern
United States and Canada in 2000. His research resulted
in the incidence levels of the virus returning to normal
during the 2001 and 2002 seasons.
Melton
received a bachelor's degree in botany in 1978 and a
master's degree in pest management in 1980 from NC State.
He received his Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University
of Illinois in 1985, where he joined the faculty as
an assistant professor of extension plant pathology.
He joined the faculty at NC State in 1988. In 1995,
Melton received the endowed Philip Morris Professorship.
He was the only associate professor to ever receive
the award. In 1999 he became NC State's department extension
leader of plant pathology, one of the nation's largest
extension groups.
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johnson -
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Raleigh,
NC 27695
