Plant propagation, urban horticulture, vegetable grafting, medicinal plant research

My research interests include the selection, evaluation and propagation of economically important plants that are either difficult-to-propagate, neglected or at risk of extinction (several medicinal plant, vegetables and indigenous crop species fall within this category), and the development of improved technologies to ensure their successful establishment.

Rural development, environmental studies, gender, race and ethnicity studies, feminist studies, political ecology, transdisciplinary science and participatory methodologies

Plant Sciences

Plant nutrition/ Adaptation to abiotic stress - excess and deficiency of micronutrients-metals/ Regulation/ Transport

Food Science and TechnologyPostharvest Pathology

Food agrochemistry and technology, Postharvest Biotecnology, Molecular biotechnology

water management, ecosystem services, agro-ecological landscape change and transformation in sub Sahara Africa, South Asia

Development processes, water management and sustainability in field to meso-scale agricultural landscapes for food, fodder , fibre production, livelihood improvements Interdisciplinary agro-eco systems research Constructs of resilience , transformation in coupled social -ecological systems Rainfed crop-livestock opportunities Sub Sahara Africa, Asia , drylands Assess, empirically and through modelling water -nutrient-biomass processes at landscape scale for exploring past and future social-ecological transformation

Field Agricultural sciences: Area of specialization: food science

My research interests include various aspects related to food science and technology. The research focuses on understanding and optimizing the the nutritional value and biofunctionality of dietary protein and involves development and application of metabolomics strategies in food and nutrition research.

Food hygiene

Microbial food spoilage and hygiene, microbial interactions, (meta)genomics and (meta)transcriptomics of food spoilage communities, lactic acid bacteria and enterobacteria

Wheat genetics; senescence and nutrient remobilisation; cereal grain nutritional value; genomics

Wheat grain nutritional value; genomics

Agricultural and food economics, economics of developing countries

Global food security, International trade in agricultural and food products, International and regional trade agreements, General equilibrium models, in particular GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project) Model

Agricultural Sciences, Soil Sciences

Viticulture, Organic agriculture, Soil food webs, Biological Control, Nematology

Agricultural SciencesCell signaling in microalgaeBiotechnology of microalgaeLipids and carotenoids production in green microorganisms

Biochemical Photosynthesis, CO2 capturing, TOR kinase signaling, Autophagy in green organisms, Inositol polyphosphates metabolic function, Evolution of green organisms

Sustainability Science with a focus on human-Environment interactions

Trade in natural (marine) resources and its effects on local development and livelihoods Finance and Environment interactions Natural resource governance Science policy interactions

Issues at the intersection of agricultural sciences, agricultural engineering, and hydrology. Evaluating processes under the conditions of climate change. Deriving technical and procedural adjustments. Developing hydrological balances for procedures and branches of industry as the basis of further technical/procedural developments.

Linking scales (continuing to develop instruments in order to predict the interactions between resource use and the impact of measures at different scales). Developing solutions that combine food security and water efficiency.

Chicken behaviour and welfare; influence of maternal care on behavioural development in chickens; empathy in animals

Emotion, cognition and social behaviour in farm animals

Natural resources, clay minerals, layered minerals

Identification of structural features of layer silicates and their manipulation Optimisation of natural resources in industry, including the ceramics, paper, and foundry industries Water binding in layered minerals Thermal analysis

Agricultural Sciences

Sustainable agriculture

Plant Biology, Biochemistry, Physiology

Plant metabolism, metabolism of vitamin compounds

Enzymology

Mechanisms of oxygen-sensing enzymes Manipulating enzyme activity to enhance plant stress tolerance

Hydrology, Ecohydrology, Water Resources Management, hydrological modelling

sustainable river basin management integrated ecohydrological modelling sustainable water management in rural areas

Solid state physics, surface science, nanoscience

Interaction of magnetism and superconductivity Molecular physics at surfaces

Agricultural Economist

Competition & efficiency of agricultural markets and food supply chains Agricultural policy, Agricultural development in Russia & Former Soviet Union countries, Global food security Methodological focus: Time-series econometrics Regional focus: Russia, Former Soviet Union countries, EU, Israel

Biochemistry, Biophysics, Structural biology, Plant sciences

Molecular Chaperones Protein folding and assembly Protein aggregation and neurodegenerative diseases Rubisco biogenesis Directed evolution

hydrology, hydrochemistry, water quality, diffuse environmental pollution, agriculture, land use

Catchment science Wetland hydrochemistry and management Land use and diffuse pollution Freshwater quality

Ecology, Agroecology, Bioenergy, Ecosystem services

Seminatural grassland productivity and Ecosystem services, Bioenergy from agriculture

time series analysis and data science;bioinformatics;computational fluid dynamics;livestock husbandry and emissions;atmospheric dynamics and climate change

Measurement of meteorological parameters and pollutant gas concentrations in and near livestock facilities; characterization of gas and particle transport; semi-mechanistic modeling of flow and transport processes (computational fluid dynamics) and empirical modeling of emission dynamics and microclimate (statistics and data science); animal-friendly and sustainable livestock husbandry, emission mitigation in and climate change adaptation of livestock husbandry

Plant breeding, agricultural and horticultural crops, agronomy, protein chemistry, bioactive compounds, modeling

The main focus of my group today is to combine agronomy, environment and plant material in a way to obtain the most suitable crop based biomass for production of food, feed, material, chemicals and biogas. Furthermore, the Bioeconomy aspects of crop based biomass uses including economy and environmental calculations of crop based biomass uses as well as socioeconomic values has become an increasingly important aspect in our work.

Social ecology and transdisciplinary research

Processes of transformation in agricultural, environmental and food systems Innovative processes and communication in agriculture and in rural spaces Information flows and information processing in social ecological systems Resilience and adaptability of social ecological systems System theory and second-order cybernetics Actor-oriented and participatory approaches Analysis and integration of knowledge Collaborative approaches to learning and collective action Gender analyses Fields of application: global food security, management of the environment and resources, adaptation to climate change, agricultural biodiversity and the management of supply chains.

Landscape Ecology, Agroecology, Pollination Ecology, Tropical Ecology, Sustainability Sciences

Plant-insect interactions, Ecosystem functioning, Ecosystem services, Biodiversity, Biology of bees, Pollination

Soil science

Organic matter in soils Role of soils in the carbon cycle Organo-mineral compounds in soils

System dynamics; social-ecological systems; transformational change; adaptation to climate change; simulation-gaming; participatory modeling

Transformation processes in agri-food systems: Adaptation to climate change and food security in sub-Saharan African countries Transformation processes in agri-food systems: Synergies and trade-offs between social, economic and ecological goals Integrated and long-term planning: Agricultural, regional and national development Model based policy analysis and design with a specialization in system dynamics modelling Model based knowledge transfer: using simulation modeling tools and techniques for learning, capacity building and empowerment

Genetics, Animal breeding, Molecular Genetics, Functional Genomics

Disease resistance, precision breeding, systems biology, resource efficiency, epigenetics, genome biology

Rangeland ecology, ecosystem functioning, Global Change, biodiversity

Functional biodiversity and its role for ecosystem stability and productivity Functioning & ecosystem services of terrestrial ecosystems in the face of global environmental change Harnessing land users' ecological knowledge for developing feasible strategies of natural resource management Resilience of pastoral social-ecological systems to global environmental change Synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services

Industrial biotechnology, food science

My main research area is on protein modifications and changes in molecular functionality induced by glycation (Maillard reactions) and oxidation with a particular emphasis on food and health. My research vision is to improve protein functionality in food and biological systems through increased molecular understanding of protein modifications and hereby make it possible to develop healthy foods of high quality and stability. The role of oxidants, reducing sugars, polyphenols, enzymes and different processes such as thermal processes and light exposure on protein modification is investigated, and how these modifications influence flavour, functionality, loss of enzyme activity, accumulation of damaged materials, decrease in nutritional value, and more recently also adverse effects on health and disease. New gentle technologies to reduce or avoid protein modification and improve protein functionality are developed, and protein damage is prevented by understanding chemical mechanisms for protein modifications. Two research approaches are combined: 1) the establishment of kinetics and reaction mechanisms of protein modifications occurring in biological systems, 2) relating these reaction mechanisms to changes in the molecular functionality of proteins that is of importance to food quality and stability, nutritional value, and in health and disease. By understanding the mechanisms behind protein modifications in food and beverage systems, it will be possible to predict, control and modulate the reactions during production and their subsequent health effects.

Genetics, Plant Breeding

Polyploidy, hybridization, speciation, evolution, cytogenetics, crop improvement

Environmental Engineering (sanitation and wastewater management)

My research interests are related to processes of planning and decision-making with regards to sanitation and wastewater management. The goal is to improve resource recovery from these systems through adaptation of technical infrastructure and institutional arrangements.

Natural Resources, Ecology

Phenology, Plant-animal interactions

Nutritional physiology, animal nutrition

Amino acid metabolism and requirements The long-term effects of nutrition in early ontogenetic stages (prenatal and early postnatal) on achievement and health Energy metabolism Glucose metabolism Regulation of feed intake Stable-isotope-based study of the parameters of nutrient metabolism

Agricultural Economics, Development Economics

Rural Development, Migration, Poverty and Inequality, Rural Livelihoods, Smallholder Farming, Cooperation, Diversification

Food Science and Technology

Agrochemistry and food technology

Landscape ecology, vegetation ecology

Current research projects: Vegetation of cultivated agrarian landscapes (Germany, Eastern Europea, Central Asia, China) Analysis of biodiversity: Landscape structure, landscape dynamics and phytodiversity of ecosystems used for agriculture, development potential of local and regional biodiversity, spatially explicated modelling of vegetation dynamics. Areas of distribution, area formation and genetic structure of endangered plant species Population dynamics of invasive plant species Spatial and temporal dynamics of diaspore banks Management of biodiversity: Results of the cultivation of energy crops Development of methods for re-establishing declining biotypes (in particular, stream-valley meadows) Concepts for use and maintenance of declining biotypes in cultivated agrarian landscapes

Biological Sciences, Agricultural Sciences

Aquaculture, Immunology, Parasitology, Microbiology

Plant Biology - Plant cytogenetics - Plant breeding

Chromosome pairing in plants - Cereal breeding through chromosome manipulation

Mathematical modelling of biological systems. Especially modelling of plant-soil interaction, blood and lymphatic system function in mammalian body, cancer modelling.

Imaging and modelling in biology. Especially imaging using multi scale X-ray CT and image based model development.

Natural Resources, Agricultural Sciences

Horticulture, Plant Physiology, Molecular Assisted Breeding, Paleogenomics, Sustainable Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Climate Change

Soil Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Biogeochemistry, Soil and Water, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance - Relaxometry, Environmental iInterfacial and colloidal Chemistry, Atomic Force Microscopy, Thermal Analysis

Soil interfacial chemistry, water repellency, SOM-Water interactions, microgel aggregate stabilization, soil-plant-interactions, biogeochemical interfaces, soil organic matter, binding and bioavailability of organic chemicals, fate and effects of engineered nanoparticles in soil and water, fate and effects of low quality waste waters and the waste water of the olive oil production

Animal husbandry and animal nutrition

Efficient use of resources in urban and rural animal husbandry systems Sustainable use of communal grazing systems (Further) development of non-invasive field methods to determine grazing activities

Plant breeding

Serious global challenges already apparent today are being exacerbated by the rise in the world population. The increasing demand for plant biomass - not only for food, but also for feed and energy - requires sweeping innovations in the field of plant production. To meet these challenges optimisation of crop yields and adaptation of plants to changing climatic conditions are crucial and call for intensive technological developments. Plant breeding is a key technology to ensure the commercially viable, consumer-oriented, sustainable and environmentally sound production of plants. The innovative power of breeding contributes to all parts of the agricultural value chain, from characterising and utilising genetic resources to providing sufficient amounts of high-quality products in the areas of food, feed, fuel and fibre. Research at the Chair of Plant Breeding is the quantitative genetic analysis of important traits of our crops such as yield, resource efficiency or adaptation of plants. By consistently employing the latest developments in the field of DNA analysis such as "next-generation" sequencing technologies, bioinformatics, genetical statistics and efficient phenotyping, breeding research is making crucial contributions to characterizing native biodiversity, elucidating its functional characteristics and explaining genetic phenomena such as heterosis and genotype-by-environment interactions. The fundamental insights of quantitative genetics are of high practical relevance in that they contribute to developing optimized, genome-based breeding strategies, to the efficient development of varieties and thus to a sustainable increase in the efficiency of agricultural production. At the TUM Chair of Plant Breeding, projects are currently being conducted on four crops (maize, rye, wheat, sunflower). Research topics include resistance against abiotic stress (cold tolerance in rye, drought tolerance in maize and wheat), biotic stress (European corn borer resistance in maize) and product quality (wheat). The main topic of all of these projects is the integration of genomic information into the very complex and laborious breeding techniques. In order to keep up with the rapid pace of developments in the fields of molecular biology, bioinformatics and breeding research, the Synbreed AgroCluster was founded, with funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) totalling 12.8 million Euros. A unique interdisciplinary center for genome-based breeding research was thus created coordinated at the Chair of Plant Breeding of the Technische Universität München, Germany, with the goal of developing genome-based selection strategies. The Synbreed AgroCluster is highly innovative and unites scientific excellence with a high degree of practical relevance and application. In the context of a knowledge-based bio-economy, Synbreed will make a significant contribution to the competitiveness of German agriculture.

Agricultural Sciences: Fish pathology, Fish parasitology, Fish immunology, Aquaculture, Myxozoa

Biology, Culture and pathology of marine species used in aquaculture, Description of new parasitic diseases

Environmental engineering, sustainable development, industrial ecology

transition to biobased economy, life cycle management and life cycle assessment (LCA), waste managment, circular economy, biochar, food, bioenergy

Animal genetics and genomics, cytogenetics, cell biology, epigenetics

Nuclear architecture Regulation of gene expression Chromosome biology

Joyce Tait has an interdisciplinary background covering both natural and social sciences and has worked on the agrochemical, pharmaceutical and life science industries, specifically strategic planning for innovation, governance and regulation, and stakeholder attitudes and influences. Relevant life science areas include synthetic biology, genetic databases, regenerative medicine, GM crops, biofuels, pharmaceuticals, and translational medicine.

Resource economics, institutional economics, agricultural economics, governance research, commons research

Agricultural and environmental political analysis Environmental and resource economics Resilience of socio-ecological systems Institutions and natural resources Participation and rural development Geopolitics and cross-border natural resources Behavioural theory and theory of collective action Development of methods and analysis of institutions Land and water management

Food Technology

Food security

Protein chemistry and enzymology; Crop protection; Molecular biology of plants; Plant physiology; Plant biotechnology

The "Laboratory of Biochemistry and Glycobiology" at the University of Ghent, headed by Prof. Els Van Damme, is embedded in the Department of Biotechnology (Gent University) has ample expertise in the field of plant biotechnology, protein purification and characterization, cell assays and microscopy, as well as physiological and molecular analyses with plants. For over 20 years, the research within this group has focused on a multidisciplinary study of biologically active plant proteins, in particular plant lectins. Over the years the focus of the research has shifted from a biochemical towards a molecular biological study aiming at deciphering the role of these proteins in the plant. Since the discovery of several inducible lectins the research has largely focused on the importance of protein-carbohydrate interactions in plants. Nowadays the major research projects running in the lab focus on getting a better understanding of the physiological role of defense-related proteins in plant cell signaling and defense.

Environmental Economics, Health Economics, Behavioral Economics, Agricultural Economics

Ecohydrology, Plant ecophysiology

Vegetation response to random, potentially damaging, weather conditions in managed and natural ecosystems, under current and future climates Ecohydrological stochastic models

Plant pathology in arable crops; Biological control of diseases and weeds

Effect of cropping factors on plant diseases and on accumulation of mycotoxins; Development of sustainable agricultural cropping systems; Strategies to avoid diseases and pests in arable crops and to reduce the input of synthetic plant protection products; Development of production systems beneficial for the environment and human health.

Plant pathology, Tropical agriculture, Rural develoment, Inter- and transdisciplinary research

Plant Pathology Research Management on Interdisciplinary Level, Leader Position in Management in Research and Education Institutions