It is with great enthusiasm that we announce a new seminar series for the Plant Sciences Group of Wageningen University and Research.

Plant science thrives in the Netherlands, with Wageningen University and Research as one of the hotspots when it comes to cutting-edge techniques, talented researchers and enthusiastic students. We all share an interest in plant life and yet we often are insufficiently aware of the expertise and ideas of our colleagues.

That’s why we will, like Ritzema Bos did in his time, bring together plant scientists at different career stages and from manifold disciplines for a returning seminar series. 

We will invite high-profile speakers to Wageningen to give lectures on plant science that will be of interest to all of us. Lectures are open to everyone;

Who was Jan Ritzema Bos?

We owe much of our knowledge and work today to a handful of founders of plant science research in the Netherlands. One of these founders was Jan Ritzema Bos, born in 1850.

He was both a phytopathologist and zoologist and brought the science community together within the ‘Royal Society for Phytopathology, now Royal Netherlands Society of Plant Pathology, see www.knpv.org.

He worked as a professor in Amsterdam from 1895 until 1906, after which he moved to Wageningen where he became the first director of the newly founded Institute for Phytopathology. In 1918, he was appointed as professor at the newly founded National Agricultural College, which later became Wageningen University and Research, with special attention for plant pests. His life was dedicated to science and bringing researchers of different disciplines together.

July 2, 2020: professor dr. Kevin Folta

Kevin M. Folta is a Professor in the Horticultural Sciences Department at the University of Florida.
His research program examines how light signals are sensed in plants and how different parts of the spectrum can change shelf life and high-value fruit and vegetable traits. His group also uses novel genomics approaches to identify genes related to flavor and disease resistance, and is discovering novel molecules that may be the next generation of herbicides and antibiotics.

He has been recognized for his efforts in science communication, with lectures and workshops that guide scientists and agricultural producers in changing public perception about food production. He has been recognized with the prestigious CAST Borlaug Award in Agricultural Communications in 2016, the Ag Pro Person of the Year in 2017, and the American AgriWomen Association Vertas Award winner in 2019. Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1998).

March 12, 2020: professor dr. Anna Rosling

Anna Rosling is a Research Associate at the Department of Ecology and Genetics, Evolutionary Biology program of Uppsala University, Sweden.

Dr. Rosling received her MSc and PhD from the Swedish Agricultural University in Uppsala, and then moved to University of California Berkeley for a postdoc. After several positions in Uppsala and the USA, in 2017 she became a Senior Lecturer at Uppsala University. In 2015 she received an ERC starting grant. Her discovery of Archaeorhizomycetes was published in Science in 2011.

The research of the Rosling group is in the field of molecular ecology and evolution, mostly with root-associated fungal communities and their adaptation to soil biogeochemistry and plant hosts. The research includes field and experimental work using community metabarcoding and comparative genomics to address adaptation to host and substrate in symbiotic fungi. In 2016 they initiated research on AM fungal genomics.

October 14, 2019: professor Malcolm Bennett

Malcolm Bennett is a Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Nottingham (UK) and his together with his team he researches the hidden half of plants.  Over the past decades they have characterized many of the regulatory signals, genes and mechanisms that direct root growth and development.

Malcolm’s team uses a systems biology approach to study root development. They have for example elucidated how roots respond to gradients of water availability, termed hydrotropism, and how hormones such as auxin control root growth and branching. Their work is funded by prestigious grants from the EU and UK.

Malcolm’s work is highly appreciated by the international community, bringing him among the top 1% most highly cited plant and animal biologists world-wide.

April 2, 2019: professor Nick Talbot

Nick Talbot is Executive Director of The Sainsbury Laboratory. His research is focused on the biology of plant diseases and he utilizes a range of cell biology, genetics and genomics approaches in his work.

Nick is interested in fungal infection-related development and understanding how fungi are able to invade plant tissue and suppress plant immunity. His main contributions have been associated with understanding the biology of plant infection by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. Nick received his PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of East Anglia.

After a period of postdoctoral research at Purdue University in the USA he moved to the University of Exeter, becoming Professor of Molecular Genetics in 1999, Head of the School of Biosciences in 2005, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2010. He joined The Sainsbury Laboratory as Executive Director in 2018. He has authored more than 160 publications.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2010, a member of EMBO in 2013, a member of the Academia Europaea in 2014, and a Fellow of The Royal Society in 2014.