Strengthening German-South African cooperation in the fight against tree diseases Humboldt Research Award winner Prof. Bernard Slippers plans research stay at TU Braunschweig
- Recommended by Professor André Fleißner from TU Braunschweig, Professor Slippers was awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Award.
- Technical University of Braunschweig will host the renowned researcher for his research stay in Germany, which is associated with the award.
- Intensive research cooperation between Professor Fleißner’s and Professor Slippers’ working groups has been in place since 2023.
The Humboldt Research Award honours Professor Bernard Slippers’ outstanding contributions to the field of forest pathology and underlines the importance of cross-border research partnerships in the context of climate change and global trade. He was nominated by Prof. André Fleißner from the Institute of Genetics at TU Braunschweig. “Bernard Slippers is the right person at the right time to coordinate international research initiatives against global tree mortality. The awarding of the Humboldt Research Award to Prof. Slippers is not only a personal honour, but also strengthens the international cooperation that we urgently need to protect forests worldwide,” said Professor Fleißner.
Forests around the world are threatened by heat, drought and the spread of invasive pests and pathogens. In recent decades, international trade in plant material has led to the spread of new species of fungi and insects that endanger entire tree populations. Professor Slippers heads the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria and has identified new pathogens and co-developed innovative control strategies in more than 340 publications.
Successful German-South African network for decoding and combating tree disease pathogens
In 2023, a fortunate coincidence resulted in an intensive research collaboration between Professor Fleißner’s fungal genetics research group at Technical University of Braunschweig and Professor Bernard Slippersander’s research group at the University of Pretoria. Since then, this collaboration has grown into a network of researchers from German and South African institutions working together to decode the role of mycobiomes and invasive fungal and oomycete pathogens. The aim is to understand the function of these microbial communities in order to develop precise diagnostic and control tools using chemical, digital, and biological methods in the future.
During his research stay at TU Braunschweig, Prof. Slippers plans to further expand this South African-German network. “In our international network, we combine unique skills and expertise to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how fungi cause tree diseases. The role of fungal communities in forest adaptability and resilience is an underestimated and largely unexplored field of research,” says Slippers.
The focus will be on researching interactions between fungal communities and tree health under stressful conditions, as well as developing environmentally friendly strategies to control invasive beetle and fungal species. Joint training of young scientists in both countries will also be intensified.