The Society asks all its members to elect a new Secretary of the IPPS by August 12, 2020 using the following link: https://forms.gle/kjukWEqFuHQvTXfX6
The nominees for this position are:
(in alphabetical order of their family name)
– Dr. Ahmet Auludag, Professor at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey
– Dr Mónica Fernández-Aparicio, Researcher at Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, CSIC, in Córdoba, Spain
– Dr. Airong Li, Professor at Kunming Institute of Botany, China
Short Biographies of the Nominees
Airong Li is Professor of Plant Conservation Biology at Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research interests focus on understanding rhizosphere interactions between root hemiparasitic plants and their biotic (host plants, soil microorganisms) as well as abiotic environments (soil nutrient and water conditions). A specific focus of her research is the root hemiparasitic Pedicularis species that infect the forage crops of Western China causing substantial losses in yield. At present she is exploiting ecological approaches to investigate the impacts of Pedicularis on the ecosystems where the hemiparasites occur. She is also taking physiological and chemical approaches to study the regulation mechanisms of the interactions in order to understand the basis of the rhizosphere processes accounting for population expansion of weedy Pedicularis species. Airong is the local organizer of the 13thWorld Congress on Parasitic Plants held in Kunming in July 2015.
Dr. Mónica Fernández-Aparicio received her PhD in Agricultural Engineering from Córdoba University, Spain in 2008, and since then she has worked as a post-doc and scientist in several universities and research institutes in United States (Virginia Tech and Virginia University), Japan (Utsunomiya University), France (INRA-Dijon) and Spain (IAS-CSIC). She dedicated her career to plant-pathogens with emphasis in biology and control of parasitic weeds, especially broomrape. Because conventional control does not contain their expansion, her objective is to increase the diversity of solutions that properly combined in strategies of integrated pest management could achieve efficacious and sustainable plant protection. For its development, the study of the parasite is essential and, therefore, her work addresses the biology of infection: host-induced parasitic germination and haustorium initiation. Regarding their control, Monica’s work is mainly focused in the characterization of new sources of resistance and the identification of new orobanchicidal molecules. Her work also intends to protect the sustainability of resistance resources and environmental-compatible orobanchicidal ingredients by reducing the chances of the parasite to adapt to them using complementary mechanisms of allelopathy and suicidal germination in intercrop or cover crops and biological control or stimulation of defense in main crops.
Professor Ahmet Auludag is a professor of weed science and invasive alien plants in the Plant Protection Department of Faculty of Agriculture, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. He has dealt with parasitic plants, mainly broomrapes and Cuscuta in crops. He organized the international parasitic plant symposium in 2010 and served as a Member at Large in the Executive Committee before, and now he would like to serve the society as the secretary. He believes that he can contribute to parasitic plant research and the society with his experience and international connections.