Godelieve Gheysen

Godelieve Gheysen is a senior full professor at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at Ghent University, where she heads the Department of Biotechnology and she also is director of International Plant Biotechnology Outreach. She conducted her Ph.D. in Sciences on the analysis of plant transformation by Agrobacterium tumefaciens under the supervision of Marc Van Montagu at Ghent University. Her expertise is plant molecular biology and biotechnology, including science communication to the public. Her research focuses on the molecular analysis of interactions between plants and pathogens with a focus on nematodes and the use of molecular breeding and biotechnology to improve plant resistance to biotic stress. G. Gheysen is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB) and in 2013 she obtained the Prometheus Award for Research from Ghent University. She teaches, amongst other courses, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Aspects of Plant Nematode Relations.