Scientific Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Christian Jung is the chairman of the scientific advisory board of the WCH. He studied agricultural sciences in at the University of Göttingen. After obtaining his doctorate he worked at the universities of Hanover and Munich where he qualified as a professor in 1992 with his thesis on molecular genome analysis of crops. Since 1993 he is the director of the Institute of Crop Science and Plant Breeding at the Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel.

Christian Jung's main research interest is in the field of crop plant genome research. He is studying the interaction between plant parasitic nematodes and their hosts and he developed novel strategies for selecting mutants from large ems mutagenized populations. His main field of research is floral transition of crop plants. In his lab a number of important flowering time genes from different crops have been cloned and characterized. He is scientific coordinator of the DFG priority program 1530 "flowering time control: from natural variation to crop improvement". Christian Jung is since 2015 Editor of the scientific journal “Frontiers in Plant Science”. Since many years he has been participating in the public debate about genetic engineering.

Prof. Dr. Inge Broer is head of the professorship Agrobiotechnology and risk assessment for Bio- and Gene technology at the University of Rostock. Her research is focussed on the usage of transgenic plants for a sustainable agriculture. She did her PhD in Genetics 1989 at the University of Bielefeld, Germany and habilitated at the same University in Genetics and Cell biology.

Inge Broer is mainly involved in the production of vaccines and biodegradable polymers in transgenic plants. In addition, influence on transgene expression on the environment and the consumer is analysed in order to ensure stable expression of transgenes in the field.

Among other functions, Prof. Broer was chair of the advanced grant panel LS9 Biotechnology of the European Research Council (ERC) for many years and is now member of the ERC Synergy grant review panel, she is chair of the commission for genetically modified food and feed of the German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment (BfR), member of the evaluation committee of the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Gatersleben and member of the scientific advisory council of the ministry for agriculture, environment and consumer protection of the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Dr. Marco Busch is Head of Weed Control Research at Bayer AG, Crop Science Division, in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. He studied biotechnology at Technical University of Braunschweig and did his PhD on plant biotechnology and physiology at the University of Hohenheim with Prof. Hess. Following a PostDoc at Paradigm Genetics, RTP, USA, he joined Bayer AG in 2002 as a visiting scientist in Gent, Belgium and thereafter held different biochemistry lab leader positions in crop protection research. Since 2009 Dr. Busch worked as a strategy consultant in the corporate development function at Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany before taking the position as Head of Disease Control Biology in Bayer’s research center in Lyon, France. In 2014, he took over the position as head of Weed Control Biology in Frankfurt, Germany and in parallel as Research Indication Leader Weed Management before taking his current position in 2016.

Jutta Günther has been appointed at the University of Bremen as a Professor of Economics with a specialisation in innovation and structural change. Before, she successfully finished her habilitation (German postdoc degree) at the Faculty of Economics at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. From 2002 to 2014 she was employed as an economist at the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Halle (IWH) where she served as head of department (2008-2013) and as a member of the executive board (2011-2013).

Her research interests are innovation processes, structural change, and economic transition. The innovation related research of Jutta Günther is empirically oriented and has a relation to current issues in technology and innovation policy. Jutta Günther has far reaching experiences in scientifically founded policy advice. She is a member of the counseling board “Innovation and Technology Analyses” of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and a member of the scientific committee of the national survey of Research and Development in Germany (Stifterverband).

Prof. Dr Bernd Müller-Röber is Head of Department of Molecular Biology at Potsdam University's Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, and the head of the work group at the Max Planck University for Molecular Plant Physiology in Golm. He is Deputy Chairman of the Bio-economy Council.

Bernd Müller-Röber is one of the leading experts in Germany in the field of green genetic technology. After studying biology and philosophy at Tübingen, Marburg and Berlin, Bernd Müller-Röber was awarded his biology PhD in 1992, and successfully completed his postdoctoral thesis in molecular plant physiology in 1998. Since 2000 he has been Professor of Molecular Biology at Potsdam University. He focuses on plant molecular biology, genome research and applied genetic technology.

Uwe Sonnewald received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the Free University of Berlin. From 1989 to 1992 he was a postdoc at the IGF in Berlin. In 1992, he became group leader at the IPK in Gatersleben. 1998 he was appointed as head of the Department Molecular Cell Biology at the IPK and full professor at the University Halle-Wittenberg. In the same year, he acted as co-founder of the biotechnology company Sungene. Since December 2004 he is full professor for Biochemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. He serves as member of national and international advisory boards and has coordinated many research networks including EU- and BMBF-projects as well as CRC796. Currently he is coordinator of the Cassava Source-Sink consortium, CASS, supported by the BMGF. He has a track record of more than 250 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals plus more than 30 issued patents and patent applications. He is an invited keynote speaker on international conferences and has given more than 150 invited talks. He served on editorial boards of international scientific journals and organized or co-organized national and international conferences.

Roland Ulber studied chemistry at the University of Hanover from 1987 to 1994. The diploma thesis on sensor systems for biotechnological process control was conducted under the direction of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. K. Schügerl. The subsequent doctoral thesis was carried out at the Institute of Biochemistry of the Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster and at the Institute for Technical Chemistry of the University of Hanover. From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Ulber was managing partner of the TEXYS GmbH. The habilitation and Venia Legendi in the subject "Technical Chemistry" at the University of Hanover took place in the year 2002. At the beginning of 2004, Roland Ulber was appointed to the C3-Professorship for Bioprocess Engineering at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern where he was instrumental in setting up the new degree program in Biotechnology and Environmental Process Engineering on. In 2006, he was appointed to the W3 professorship for Technical Biochemistry at the Technical University of Braunschweig. At the end of 2006, Mr. Ulber rejected the call and further expanded the field of bioprocess engineering at the TU Kaiserslautern. In the fall of 2015, a call was made to the Technical University of Munich, which he also did not follow. His research interests are in the field of industrial bioprocess engineering. Mr. Ulber is currently Chairman of the Biotech Association of DECHEMA.

Prof. Dr. Heribert Warzecha has headed the Plant Biotechnology and Metabolic Engineering working group at the Technical University of Darmstadt since 2007. After studying Pharmacy and PhD in Pharmaceutical Biology in Mainz in 1998, the main field of work is the production of pharmaceuticals in plants. Research focuses on the plant-based production of protein therapeutics and vaccines as well as the targeted modification of plant secondary metabolism to obtain novel ingredients. The main focus is on the heterologous production of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids and cannabinoids. By means of combinatorial biosynthesis by enzymes of various origins, completely new structures can be generated that do not occur in nature in this form (new-to-nature). Examples include halogenated derivatives of indigo dyes and the introduction of new functional groups by cytochrome P450 monooxygenases. Prof. Warzecha is a member of numerous selection committees and head of the EU COST program "Plant Metabolic Engineering for High Value Products".

Prof. Dr. Justus Wesseler is an agricultural economist and professor of Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He has a degree in agricultural, environmental and natural resource economics from the University of Göttingen, Germany. His research work is on the economics of biotechnology, value chain economics, and regulatory economics including issues related to coexistence. The major focus is on the contribution of value chains to improve sustainability and the impact of new technologies and regulations on the value chain in this respect. He was the head of the Research Department of Agricultural Economics at the Center of Life and Food Sciences Weihenstephan, and is a member of the International Consortium of Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR), co-editor of AgBioForum and board member of Wageningen School of Social Sciences.