FABI-SASSP Joint Special Seminar by Prof. Bart Thomma

Please join us for a joint FABI-SASPP event hosting Prof. Bart Thomma, Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Evolutionary Microbiology, Institute for Plant Sciences, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), University of Cologne.

When: Tuesday 11 March, 15:30 (followed by a reception and light refreshments) 

Where: FABI Auditorium, Hatfield Campus, University of Pretoria

Title: How fungal pathogens manipulate host microbiota to establish infection.

Please click here to register your attendance for this event.

Biography of Prof. Thomma:

After studying Plant Pathology at Wageningen University in the Netherland, Bart Thomma received a PhD from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium on immune signalling pathways in Arabidopsis for a thesis describing that, besides salicylic acid, also jasmonate and ethylene play major roles in defence against pathogens. From 2003 onwards he has established a career at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, starting as postdoc, through assistant and associate professor to become full professor and head of department in 2013. This is where he started to develop his work on the vascular wilt pathogen Verticillium dahliae. In 2020, Bart Thomma was awarded a Humboldt Professorship to become professor of Evolutionary Microbiology at the University of Cologne in Germany and at the “Centre of Excellence on Plant Science” (CEPLAS), where he moved his research group. Bart Thomma received the first RKS Wood Prize, awarded by the British Society for Plant Pathology, and acts as section editor for the journal PLoS Pathogens and as co-editor-in-chief of FEMS Microbiology Reviews.