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ABOUT Professor Michael John “Mike” Wingfield is the Director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria and the current President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO). He holds the Mondi Chair of Forest Pathology and is also the Director of the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP) and Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB). Prof. Wingfield is a fungal taxonomist and forest tree health expert with over 30 years’ active research experience in these fields. He was born in 1954 in Durban, South Africa and is married to Prof. Brenda Wingfield.

EDUCATION Wingfield studied at the University of Natal where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree and completed his Honours degree the following year. He completed his Masters degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1979, graduating cum laude. He read his Ph.D. in plant pathology and entomology at the University of Minnesota where he graduated in 1983. Wingfield is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme, which he completed in 2008.

RESEARCH INTERESTS Prof. Wingfield’s primary research focus is on the study of forest tree pests and diseases. A particular emphasis of this research has been on trees grown as plantation crops, especially, but not exclusively, in the tropics and southern Hemisphere. Here, a specific strength has been developed in the identification of pathogens of plantation-grown trees such as species of Pinus, Eucalyptus, Acacia and Gmelina, as well as in devising strategies to reduce the impact of the disease that they cause. A strong belief is held that a comprehensive understanding of the biology and genetics of tree pests and pathogens is needed in order to reduce their impact. This has been the basis for an intensive basic research programme using the most modern biotechnology tools. Results have continuously been transferred to the plantation level with considerable success and this has led to support from private forestry companies and conservation groups, worldwide.