The American Phytopathological Society (APS) has announced the Award winners for the year 2007. The awardee of the prestigious Noel T. Keen Award for research in molecular plant pathology is Pierre de Wit, professor of Phytopathology at Wageningen University. He will be honoured on July 31 in San Diego, United States. Wageningen University’s alumnus Herman Scholthof will receive the Ruth Allen Award.
The Noel T. Keen Award for research in molecular plant pathology recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions in host–pathogen interactions, plant pathogens or plant-associated microbes, or molecular biology of disease development or defence mechanisms.
Pierre de Wit has made several outstanding contributions to molecular plant pathology, which are described in more than 120 original articles and reviews. Presently, de Wit’s research group at Wageningen University has cloned eight effectors of C. fulvum and to all of them cognate Cf genes do exist in wild accessions of Solanum species.
Pierre de Wit has taken several leadership roles to service the science of molecular plant pathology. He is the current president of IS-MPMI, and in 1999, he organized the international congress of the society in Amsterdam. Also, he organized several EU workshops, chaired the Scientific Committee of the 1995 Fungal Genetics Conference, and vice-chaired the Scientific Committee of the 1998 ICPP Congress. He is highly committed to training the next generation of scientists. As the head of the Laboratory of Phytopathology at Wageningen University, he oversees a very active and diverse group of plant pathologists. In total, he supervised 40 Ph.D. students, several of which went on to become active scientists on their own. He teaches both introductory and advanced plant pathology courses. His teaching skills are in high demand, and he was invited to contribute to about a dozen Ph.D. national and international summer schools and courses.
Pierre de Wit is a regular keynote and session speaker at major conferences. Over the years, he has offered more than 125 invited seminars and presentations at various institutions and international conferences. He is recognized as a highly cited scientist in his discipline and he has served on the editorial board of several journals and in the advisory board of companies and institutions.
He received several awards for his research accomplishments, notably the Emil Christian Hansen Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to research in microbiology by the Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen, and the research prize of WU. In 1991, he was elected as a member of the Dutch Society for the Advancement of Science and, in 1999, of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Herman Scholthof
APS announced at the same time the awarding of Herman B. Scholthof. He receives the Ruth Allen Award for his outstanding, innovative contributions to research that has changed, or has the potential to change the direction of research in any field of plant pathology. Herman Scholthof studied at Wageningen University to obtain his Bachelor and Master degrees in 1984 and 1986. Scholthof was appointed to full professor in 2005 at Texas A&M University.