Dogwood Entrepreneurs Take the Prize
Disease resistant trees revitalize state nursery industry
You may not think of university professors as entrepreneurs, but two UT plant pathologists developed disease-resistant dogwood trees that have revitalized Tennessee’s nursery industry.
Robert Trigiano and Mark Windham’s trees are resistant to dogwood anthracnose or to powdery mildew, two tree-killing diseases that have limited the use of the species in ornamental horticulture in recent decades. The varieties, or cultivars, are sold under the “Appalachian” trademark.
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In honor of their achievement, Trigiano and Windham shared UT’s most prestigious award for entrepreneurship, the 2007 Wheeley Award for Technology Transfer. The award recognizes scientific achievement coupled with entrepreneurial accomplishments. Both men are researchers in the UT Institute of Agriculture’s Tennessee Experiment Station and teach in the UT College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
In the mid-1990s, Trigiano and Windham discovered a single anthracnose-resistant dogwood in Catoctin National Park near Camp David, Md. Subsequent research showed that the saplings they cultivated from that original tree are capable of surviving the disease, which kills both wild and domestic dogwoods across the United States. They named the cultivar Appalachian Spring, and 19 nurseries in Tennessee and Oregon have licensed it for sale nationwide.
In 2002, the pair followed Appalachian Spring with patents for three Appalachian varieties that are resistant to powdery mildew, a disease that made domestic cultivation of dogwoods extremely expensive for nursery companies. Now they are seeking a patent on a fourth cultivar, Appalachian Joy, which is also mildew-resistant and has more showy blooms.
Trigiano and Windham started Creative Agricultural Technologies in 2006 to manage licensing and marketing. The company will handle not only the dogwoods but also other agricultural products developed at UT. It recently licensed the nation’s largest wholesale nursery, J. Frank Schmidt Nursery, to grow the UT dogwoods.
The Wheeley Award was established by B. Otto and Kathleen Wheeley to recognize and encourage technology transfer. Wheeley, a UT graduate, was deputy chairman of the Koppers Co. and president of Kopvenco, its venture capital subsidiary. He founded Venture First Associates Inc. and has worked with the university to promote commercial development of university research. Eleven faculty have received the award since it was established in 1989.