Seminario ICVV. ‘Chemically Mediated Plant-Herbivoremicrobe Interactions For Sustainable Agriculture’

Sergio Rasmann is a Swiss plant chemical ecologist who obtained his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), during which he discovered that herbivore-damaged maize roots emit volatile signals in the soil that attract predatory nematodes near the site of wounding. This finding resulted in a publication in Nature that is now cited >1500 times and has spurred intensive research on how to useentomopathogenic nematodes for controlling root-feeding pests. After a post-doc at Cornell University, a research fellowship at the University of Lausanne, and an assistant professorship at the University of California, Irvine, he is now Full Professor at the University of Neuchâtel, head of the Laboratory of Functional Ecology (LEF). His current research interests focus on addressing the mechanistic, ecological, and evolutionary causes and consequences of chemically mediated interactions between plants and their biotic and abiotic environment. This broad theme that is split into studying the effects of climate change on plantherbivore interaction, improving biological control methods using beneficial microbes, and conservation biology practices. At the University of Neuchâtel, he is in charge of one Master's curriculum in Biology, and of the Doctoral School in Life Sciences. He is an active member of several scientific commissions at the Swiss National Science Foundation and at CITES, and he has been awarded the early career award by the International Society of Chemical Ecology in 2014 and is Senior Editor at ELife. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including papers in Nature, Science, and PNAS. >13500 citations; H-index 63.