BioControl - Meet the Editors
Editor-in-Chief
Eric Wajnberg
INRAE, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France
Eric Wajnberg is a population biologist specializing in population genetics, behavioral ecology, and statistical modeling. He is also an expert in biological control (past Secretary General of the International Organisation of Biological Control – Iobc). Over about 40 years of scientific activity, he has developed sound scientific expertise in running accurate experimental approaches, especially on insect parasitoid behavior, and in developing theoretical models based on statistical models and algorithms with the use of computer grids. This has led him to publish more than 110 publications in international scientific journals, present more than 150 talks at international conferences, and supervise about 20 Ph.D. students. He has also developed a teaching program in ecology, insect behavior, statistics, and modeling. In addition to his academic trajectory, Eric Wajnberg has developed an active editorial presence. He is the Editor-in-Chief (since 2006) of the international journal BioControl and is a member of the editorial boards of four other international scientific journals in the field of entomology. He has edited a total of 11 books at the international level, and others are under preparation.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6700-7114 (this opens in a new tab)
Web page: http://www2.sophia.inra.fr/perso/wajnberg/ (this opens in a new tab)
Editors
Dirk Babendreier
CABI Europe - Switzerland, Delémont, Switzerland
Dirk Babendreier studied biology at the University of Kiel, Germany (1988-1994). He conducted his Ph.D. in collaboration with CABI Switzerland and the University of Kiel and received his degree in 1998 on biological control of the European Apple Sawfly. This was followed by a 4-year PostDoc and another six years as a researcher at Agroscope near Zurich in Switzerland, where he worked mainly on risk assessment of biological control and transgenic plants. In 2008, he joined CABI Switzerland as Crop Health Advisor to implement projects in the area of Integrated Crop Management around the globe. Since then, his research focuses on sustainable pest solutions with a focus on biological control. He has published more than 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals with a current H-index of 30.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2727-7643 (this opens in a new tab)
Web page: https://www.cabi.org/cabi-people/dirk-babendreier/ (this opens in a new tab)
Stefano Colazza
University of Palermo, Italy
Stefano Colazza is a full Professor of Agricultural Entomology at the University of Palermo, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Forest Sciences (SAAF). He started to work at the University of Perugia under the supervision of the internationally known biocontrol researcher professor Fernando Bin, and remained at Perugia after graduation as a lecturer and teaching assistant in 1986. In 1987, he moved to professor Brad Vinson’s group at Texas A&M University as a postdoctoral scholar before taking a faculty position at the University of Palermo as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2006. He has served as department head since 2015. He has conducted research as a visiting scientist in France, USA, Brazil, Argentina, and New Zealand, including spending a one-year sabbatical with Professor Jocelyn Millar at the University of California, Riverside in 2003, which expanded his research interests into chemical ecology. Colazza’s current research focuses on infochemicals and the behavioral ecology of plant-insect herbivores-insect parasitoid interactions in a multitrophic context, and on the chemical ecology of plant VOCs in a multitrophic context. He was elected as a fellow of the Italian Academy of Entomology, and the Academy of Georgofili. He currently serves as an associate editor for BioControl, and as specialty chief editor of Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution in the section of Chemical Ecology. Over the last two decades, he has led several international collaborations and research groups, directed undergraduate and postgraduate students, and taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a range of subjects. He has published about 200 scientific articles and edited a book on insect chemical ecology. He has been a member of the International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE) since 1992 and served as ISCE councilor from 2009-2012, and as President from 2021-2022.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8023-7814 (this opens in a new tab)
Jane Debode
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO), Merelbeke, Belgium
Dr. Jane Debode is a senior scientist at the Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Plant Sciences Unit in Merelbeke, Belgium. Her main expertise is biocontrol of plant diseases and overall microbiology in relation to plant health.
Jane graduated in 2001 as master in Bioscience Engineering at Ghent University and received her Ph.D. in 2005 in Applied Biological Sciences – Agriculture at the same university. She published > 50 peer-reviewed articles (H-index Scopus = 20) and is currently involved in > 10 national and international projects related to microbiology and plant health. Jane is an expert member of EFSA's working group ALPHA High-Risk Plants and of the EIP-AGRI Focus Group IPM of soil-borne diseases in vegetable and arable crops.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8509-5413 (this opens in a new tab)
Web page: https://pureportal.ilvo.be/en/persons/jane-debode (this opens in a new tab)
Ralf-Udo Ehlers
Gesellschaft für Biotechnologie und Biologischen Pflanzenschutz, Germany
Lecturer in biological control and biotechnology at Kiel University, Germany, and entomopathogenic nematodes at Gent University, Belgium. Founder of the company e-nema GmbH, a biotech company producing biocontrol agents based on nematodes and microorganisms. IOBC/WPRS Convener from 1988 until 2011 of the Working Group "Insect pathogens and entomoparasitic nematodes".
2006–2007: Coordinator of the EU Scientific Support to Policy Action REBECA: Regulation of biological control agents in Europe 2013–2018: Executive Board Member and Treasurer of the IBMA (International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association, Brussels, Belgium). 2015: Karl Leopold Escherich Award, German Society for General and Applied Entomology. 2020: IBMA Bernard-Blum Award: Most innovative biocontrol product 2020. 2014-2022: President of the European Society of Nematologists.
Éverton Kort Kamp Fernandes Neuer Inhalt
Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil
Éverton Kort Kamp Fernandes is a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) of Brazil, and an associate professor of Parasitology at the Universidade Federal de Goiás, located in the Midwest of Brazil. His main research interest is the biological control of ticks with entomopathogenic fungi, with emphasis on fungal formulation, efficacy of bioproducts, tolerance of entomopathogenic fungi to environmental abiotic factors, and defense mechanisms of ticks to fungal infection. He holds a degree in veterinary medicine (2001), a master's degree (2003), and a doctorate (2007) in veterinary science from the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ). Éverton was a postdoctoral fellow at Utah State University, Department of Biology, from 2007 to 2010. He has experience in veterinary medicine focusing on preventive veterinary medicine, and has been on the editorial board of BioControl since 2019 as Associate Editor.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7062-3295 (this opens in a new tab)
Josep Anton Jaques Miret
Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Castelló de la Plana, Spain.
Josep’s areas of expertise include insect and mite biology, population ecology, pest management systems with emphasis on biological control, and pest risk analysis. He joined the editorial board of BioControl in 2014.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1353-1727 (this opens in a new tab)
Marta Montserrat
Institute for Mediterranean and Subtropical Horticulture "La Mayora", Málaga, Spain
Dr. Marta Montserrat is an experimental ecologist with expertise in population and community ecology and biological pest control. She holds two Ph.D.s, in agricultural sciences (Universitat de Lleida, Spain) and in ecology (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands). She is a tenured scientist at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) since 2009. Her main activity focuses on food web engineering, defined as an extension of conservation biological pest control that integrates community ecology and evolutionary biology into the management of agro-ecosystems. She has published 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals in the areas of agriculture. She has been Principal Investigator in 5 projects presented to highly competitive Spanish National calls, 1 project within the ERA-net C-IPM (Coordinated Integrated Pest Management in Europe) – INIA call, and Work Package leader and PI in 1 project within the EU H2020 RIA framework. She is an Associate Editor for BioControl since 2014.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6859 (this opens in a new tab)-4955 (this opens in a new tab)
Linda Claire Muskat
Hochschule Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany
Linda C. Muskat is a tenure-track professor of phytopathology and plant protection in viticulture and horticulture at Hochschule Geisenheim University since 2023. Her primary research interest lies in the development and application of living microbial biocontrol agents for plant protection. Linda earned her Ph.D. in agricultural entomology from the University of Göttingen in collaboration with the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences in 2022. Throughout her Ph.D., she gained expertise in the fermentation and formulation of entomophthoralean fungi for insect pest control, as well as the formulation of semiochemicals for manipulating insect behavior. Before pursuing her Ph.D., she completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in biology at the University of Mainz (2010-2016), where her research focused on the biology and control of grapevine-pathogenic fungi, exploring the involvement of fungal secondary metabolites in pathogenesis and their fungicidal potential. In 2023, Linda joined the Editorial Board of BioControl as an Associate Editor, where she primarily handles articles dealing with insect pathogenic fungi and their application in insect pest control.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7686-9640 (this opens in a new tab)
Dionysios Perdikis
Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
Dionysios is an Associate Professor of the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. He studied the biological parameters and food preferences of Macrolophus pygmaeus in his PhD. His main research interests: Integrated Pest Management, biological control, omnivorous predators, conservation biological control, vegetable and olive pests, electronic traps, Decision Support Systems, essential oils from aromatic plants as new insecticides. He was member of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Plant Health Panel (2006-2009), convenor of IOBC/WPRS WG “Integrated Protection of Olive Crops” (2010-2018) and President of the Hellenic Entomological Society (2014-2015, 2020-). He was chairman or member of the organizing and scientific committees of six international and six national conferences and invited speaker in international conferences. He is member of the editorial board of five journals and guest editor in special issues. He has published more than 110 papers in peer-reviewed journals with a current H-index of 28.
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0204-3242 (this opens in a new tab)
Web-page: http://efp.aua.gr/en/userpages_en/67 (this opens in a new tab)
Michelle Rafter
Tropical Invasive Plants Health & Biosecurity, CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia
Dr. Michelle Rafter is an evolutionary ecologist whose research focuses on developing novel, safe, and effective pest management solutions for problematic weeds and insects. She uses novel evolutionary ecological approaches to develop and apply ecological theory to applied entomological problems affecting biosecurity. This has led to tangible advances in invasive species management in Australia and globally, through more nuanced and innovative approaches to the study of weeds and pest insects. She leads CSIRO’s tropical weeds team based in Brisbane, Australia whose primary goal is to develop solutions for invasive weed problems by collaborating with scientists in the target weed native range to identify candidate agents, conducting quarantine risk assessments in Australia, implementing mass rearing and release programs for agents that are given regulatory approval and monitoring their establishment and impact on the target weed. Key areas of her research include host-plant interactions, behavioral ecology, gene flow, species delimitation, dispersal ecology, pesticide action, and weed biological control.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5180-0062 (this opens in a new tab)
Web page: https://people.csiro.au/r/m/michelle-rafter (this opens in a new tab)
James T. Tambong, Ph.D.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Dr. James T. Tambong is a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Canada; and adjunct professor at University of Manitoba, Canada. his current research is on genome-based bacterial taxonomy (phylogenomics), identification/detection and biodiversity of plant pathogenic and agricultural beneficial (biocontrol) bacteria. Also, his laboratory uses CRISPR/Cas9 gene knockout technology to investigate the involvement of biosynthetic clusters in the biological control activity of Pseudomonas strains. He attained a PhD from the Laboratory of Phytopathology, University of Ghent (Belgium) working on the characterization and biocontrol of Pythium myriotylum. He conducted post-doctoral research at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on plant pathogenic Pythium in the laboratory of Dr. André C. Levesque. Dr. Tambong has published 79 peer-reviewed articles. In 2019-2022, he served as member of three committees of the American Phytopathological Society (APS): Bacteriology, Evolutionary Genetics & Genomics, and Disease Surveillance & Pathogen Detection Methods. He is a past-chair of the APS Tropical Plant Pathology Committee. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for BioControl, Frontiers in Microbiology and the Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology.
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5325-8038 (this opens in a new tab)
Web pages: https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/profile/dr-james-t-tambong (this opens in a new tab)
https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/778552/overview (this opens in a new tab)Sotiris Tjamos
Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Dr. Tjamos works as an associate professor in the Phytopathology Laboratory, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece. His main research interests are: biological control of plant diseases, plant epigenetics, plant immunity, plant–microbe interactions.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2497-8244 (this opens in a new tab)
Web page: https://www.aua.gr/stjamos/index_en.htm (this opens in a new tab)