Name Niklaus Grunwald | ||
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Born August 28, 1962 (age 62) Caracas, Venezuela ( 1962-08-28 ) Institutions USDA Agricultural Research ServiceOregon State UniversityCornell University Fields Biology, Ecology, Plant pathology | ||
Niklaus J. Grünwald is an American biologist and plant pathologist born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela of German and Swiss ancestry. He is currently a research scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, a Professor (Courtesy) in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University, and a Professor (Adjunct) in the Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology at Cornell University.
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Education
Grünwald obtained a BSc in plant science at University of California, Davis (UC Davis) in 1992. He completed his PhD in ecology and plant pathology in 1997 at UC Davis studying the effect of cover crop decomposition on soil nutrient cycling and soil microbiology. He pursued post-doctoral research at Cornell University.
Research
His academic research focuses on the evolution, genomics, and ecology of plant pathogens in the genus Phytophthora and management of the diseases they cause. This pathogen group includes some of the most costly diseases affecting crops and ecosystems. These pathogens have well characterized effectors Effector (biology) to circumvent plant host recognition that in the genus Phytophthora include RxLR, Crinkler and other small secreted proteins. Grünwald is best known for providing novel insights into how plant pathogens emerge, methods to study pathogen evolution, particularly when populations are clonal, and characterizing the evolutionary history of Phytophthora pathogens.