Professor James Starr is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at Texas A&M University, USA. He obtained a B.S. and a M.S. in Plant Pathology from Cornell University and a PhD in Plant Pathology from Cornell University. After completing his PhD, he moved to North Carolina State University, where he was successively Research Associate in the Department of Plant Pathology and Chief of the Nematode Advisory Section. He moved to Texas A&M University in 1981 where his main research interests are identification, characterization and deployment of resistance to nematodes in important crop species. In 2003 he was elected Fellow of the Society of Nematologists (USA) in recognition of his research achievements and, in 2006, he was elected Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Nematology (2003-2006) and was President of the Society of Nematologists (1996-1997). He has published over 80 refereed scientific papers, overseen the release of five germplasm lines and two cultivars resistant to nematodes, and co-edited two books, Plant Resistance to Parasitic Nematodes (2002) and Plant Nematodes of Agricultural Importance (2007). is a farmer's son who qualified as a veterinary surgeon in 1966 at Bristol University. He spent eight years working in Kenya before returning to the UK. He has been a general practitioner in Norfolk ever since. He is a passionate traveller and has taught and worked with equine practitioners throughout the world. He has completed a doctorate on an investigation of the difficulties faced by practitioner researchers in publication. He is a regular writer in veterinary journals and other publications. He has a son studying economics at Bristol University and a daughter studying veterinary medicine at Cambridge University.
