Gary Chastagner

Gary A. Chastagner was born in Woodland, CA. He received an A.A. in Natural Science from Sacramento City College, his B.A. in Biology and Industrial Arts from California State University, Fresno, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Davis. Gary worked briefly as a Post Doctoral Fellow at UC Davis before joining the faculty at Washington State University in 1978 at the Research and Extension Center in Puyallup, WA, working on ornamental bulb crop and turfgrass diseases. He added responsibilities for Christmas trees in 1980, hybrid poplars in 1988, and sudden oak death in 2003. He was promoted to Professor in 1998 and currently has statewide research and extension responsibilities for ornamental bulb crops, Christmas trees, and sudden oak death.

Gary has developed a highly respected and productive extension and research program with international impact. He has received over $5.7 million in competitive and noncompetitive funding and published 70 peer reviewed papers, 23 non-refereed professional papers, 27 extension bulletins, 9 web pages, 1 educational video, 9 book chapters, 70 technical publications, 93 popular press articles, 132 abstracts, and given more than 600 presentations to regional, national and international audiences.