Gert Kema

Gert Kema is an authority on fungal diseases in wheat, particularly Mycosphaerella graminicola that he researched for over two decades. Since 2006 he developed global research projects on Mycosphaerella fijiensis in banana with a focus on genomics with applications in fungicide resistance and host-pathogen interactions. He was PI on the genome project of this fungus and played a major role in accomplishing the banana genome project that was completed and published in 2012. He currently coordinates major banana research programs – involving a range of PhD projects – on Panama disease and black Sigatoka and leads a public-private-partnership devoted to technical solutions for banana growers in the Philippines. He is a co-founder of two companies dealing with biomaterials and genetic engineering for disease resistance. He is a frequent speaker at major international scientific meetings, is senior editor of the scientific journal Molecular Plant Pathology and is an author of more than 90 scientific papers and book chapters.