Assignments and research activities:

• Senior scientist within the interdepartmental working group on phytonematologyResearch interests: Nematodes that directly or indirectly affect plants (phytonematodes) in agroecosystems; Their microbiome at different life stages, microbe-plant-nematode interactions; Metabarcoding of communities of nematodes and microbes; Soil biome management for suppression of plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN); Molecular differentiation of populations of PPN, their distribution, dynamics, and infectivity
• Current projects investigate
  (1) the role of microbes that are attached to infective stages of PPN,
  (2) priming of crops or modulation of their microbiome for enhanced defense against PPN,
  (3) nematode-microbe interactions that induce apple replant disease,
  (4) differentiation of cyst nematode populations using profiles of sequence variants of effector genes

Boards, memberships and other activities:

• JKI network on phytonematology
• Nematology meetings with federal plant protection agencies
• German Scientific Society for Plant Protection and Plant Health (DPG)
• European Society of Nematologists (ESN)
• Friends and supporters of the JKI (GFF)
• Editorial Board: Frontiers in Microbiology; Frontiers in Plant Science; Soil Systems
• Ad-hoc Reviewer
• Teaching at Technische Universität Braunschweig

Professional career & education:

• since 2009 Nematologist at the Julius Kühn-Institut, Braunschweig, Germany
• 2005 - 2009 DFG research group FOR 566: Veterinary Medicines in Soils, Braunschweig
• 2002 - 2004 University of Idaho, Biological Sciences, Moscow, ID, USA
• 2000 - 2002 German Research Centre for Biotechnology, Braunschweig
• 1993 - 2000 Federal Biological Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Braunschweig
• 1999 Dr. rer. nat. Biology, Technische Universität Braunschweig
• 1992-1994 Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institute for Microbiology, Hanover, Germany
• 1991 Diploma in Biology, Technische Universität Braunschweig

Publications on Researchgate

Publications in the Julius Kühn-Institut