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in The Field Together We Made a Really Good Team Nancy Dykema on her time working with Dr. Joseph Vargas at Michigan State University versity May 17, 2024
I
graduated with my bachelors degree from MSU in secondary education and biological sciences. As an undergraduate, I worked in Joe’s lab as a student assistant. That was my first exposure to plant pathology or turf pathology. After graduation, I left then returned to MSU to work. I ran into Joe at lunch one day and told him im I was thinking of getting back into research. search. “Do you know of anybody who’s hiring ng or has any funded projects?” He just happened to have a project that had just gotten funded, working on necrotic ring spot. We chatted a bit, he asked for my resume, and the rest is history!
NANCY DYKEMA Research Assistant III Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
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He hired me for that project, and I became a research tech. That was about thirty two years ago. In June this year, I will have 36 years of service at MSU. I’ve worked on various projects throughout the years, including fungicide testing. Initially in my career I did mostly grant-funded research projects. I also was Joe’s technical and office assistant. Joe traveled extensively so it was challenging to run a successful research lab. He was very “techy” so I was charged with keeping him using the latest and greatest in computers and technology. I also worked alongside Ron Detweiler. He enjoyed the applied side of research out in the field, while I focused more on lab experiments and handling data. We worked together really well, and I think that made Joe really happy because things were very smooth.
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