New Year – New Faces – Same Great Service by John Mizicko

Issue Date: March 2010

As the new year is unfolding and we are all looking for an improvement in the economy, a more stable business environment, lower unemployment, and a stronger Agricultural outlook; Eurofins STA Laboratories is watching our environment and employees change, grow, and get stronger. We started last summer with the knowledge that one of our valued employees in Seed Health testing wanted to venture out into the business world on her own and start up a small company – a long standing dream of hers. With the anticipation of the departure in late September of Jackie Jessup (CO-BFB and Bacteriology Supervisor) we transitioned the CO-BFB program to Cindy Engle, another long term employee who had been overseeing the CO-Virus program. Cindy took on both the CO-BFB program and the Virus program and has been doing a stellar job in both ever since. However, after running both programs for 4-5 months, she realized that with the size of the BFB program in CO, it was best to move the Virus program to someone else. Since that program is relatively small but important, we have recently moved the supervision of it to Narceo Bajet, Asst Manager/Senior Scientist in CO. Nars is ecstatic about this move since this will give him more time in the lab and more direct contact with clients.

Moving the Bacteriology program from Jackie to someone else was a bit more challenging. We initiated a search for a good candidate and were rewarded with finding Rigo Abarca, a recent transfer from California to the Longmont area. Rigo has a Bachelors Degree in Biology from UC Santa Cruz and was most recently employed by Toxscan as a Microbiologist. He trained for over a month directly with Jackie in our Bacteriology program before her departure. Rigo has done a great job in assimilating into the program and taking over the leadership of it. At about the same time that Rigo was hired we hired Joseph Nicholl to fill the spot of one of our Lab Technicians that had transferred to Gene Hookstra’s Genetic Services Division. Joseph has a Bachelors degree in Microbiology and is also integrating well into the Seed Health Department in Colorado.

Not to be outdone by our Colorado Seed Health group, the California staff also experienced some changes. After Anita Castro Sparks departed the CA-BFB program to return to her beloved University of Georgia, Anna Egland took over control of the BFB program. Anna is a long time employee who has been running the CA-Virus program and has had previous experience in running the BFB program. Recognizing that running the CA-BFB and the CA-Virus program was too much for one person, we recruited Marcus Michel in the fall of 2009 to come in and take over the Virus program for Anna. Marcus has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Plant Biology, a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry (both from UC Santa Cruz) and has worked in the molecular marker program for both Syngenta and Seminis. Though Marcus did not have much experience in plant pathology, he has learned the Virus program quickly and will soon be contributing to advancing ESTA’s seed health programs as they move forward to more molecular-based testing techniques.

To further support the CA-BFB program as well as the other seed health programs in CA, we hired Roy Yeung as another Lab Technician. Roy has a Bachelors degree in Biotechnology from UC Davis and began contributing to the BFB program the first day on board. He has taken well to the laboratory processes associated with that program as well as being an integral part of the BFB grow out testing.

Lastly, we recognized that the CA Seed Health department needed to have a designated Lab Manager similar to what the CO Seed Health group has with Narceo. Not wanting (or needing) to go out and hire another person to fill this position since the CA Lab Manager position was not recognized as a full time job, we have recently promoted Anna Egland to that position. Anna will continue to run the CA-BFB program but will now take on the additional role of Lab Manager for the rest of the CA Seed Health group.

As we roll further into 2010 we see all the above changes within Seed Health as strengthening our service to you, our clients, and further enabling ESTA to serve not only your current needs but to help position us so that we can work with you to determine your future needs and to serve those also. Our goal is to constantly enhance the resources within ESTA, thus constantly enhancing our resources for our clients.