Dr. Francois Lefort has been a senior scientist at the Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biotechnology of the University of Crete from 1998 to 2001. Graduated in 1983 (B. Sc.) and 1984 (M. Sc.) from the University Blaise Pascal of Clermont-Ferrand (France), he then worked as a research assistant at the Laboratory of Plant Biochemistry and Physiology (unit of Dr. Claude Penel and Prof H. Greppin), University of Geneva (Switzerland) where he passed his philosophical doctorate (Ph. D.) in Biology (1991). He then worked from 1993 to 1995 as a post-doc research assistant on circulating DNA in cancer patients (unit of Dr. Maurice Stroun and Dr Philippe Anker) at the University of Geneva. In 1996, he joined An Teagasc (Authority for Food and Agriculture Development), Dublin (Ireland) and also acted as Lecturer in Molecular Medicine of Trinity College (part-time) University of Dublin from 1997 to 2000. He moved to the University of Crete in 1998, where he undertook the molecular profiling of Greek cultivars of Vitis vinifera and Vitis rootstocks, including the characterization of new microsatellite markers for V. vinifera, and developed the Greek Vitis database. Since 2002, he has been working as Professor, in charge of Plant Health, at Ecole d'Ingénieurs de Lullier in Switzerland. His present research addresses the molecular diagnostic of plant pathogens such as Phytopthora and also includes the characterisation of plant genetic resources with molecular markers. He collaborates to international efforts of grapevine germplasm characterisation and participates actively in the development of genetic databases in Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine.
Dr Kalliopi A. Roubelakis-Angelakis did her undergraduate studies at the Agric. University of Athens, Greece, and her graduate work at the University of California, Davis, USA, from where she received an M.S., in Viticulture, an M.S. in Food Science and Technology and a Ph. D. in Plant Molecular Physiology. She has been Professor of Plant Physiology and Biotechnology at the Department of Biology, University of Crete, Greece and Director of the Graduate Programme Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology; visiting Professor and invited lecturer in several international Universities; President of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology; member of the European Thematic Biotechnology Network, the European Committee for Teaching Biology in Europe; chairperson of organizing committees of numerous international congresses; member of thematic committees and evaluation panels in European Union and the International Foundation for Science; recipient of Distinguished scholar fellowship by the Federal Government of Australia and honorary awards from several international Universities; member of editorial review committees, selection Committees for faculty members in international Universities, advisory and examination committees for doctoral theses in European, Australian, American, Chinese and Indian Universities; mentor of more than 30 graduate students; editor of international books and recipient of the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin award for her book Molecular Physiology and Biotechnology of the Grapevine. The research achievements of her group include answers to state-of the-art questions in Plant Molecular Stress Biology, ammonia assimilation and also development of molecular markers for identification of Vitis genotypes. She has more 200 publications in high rank international peer-reviewed journals, books, invited chapters in international books, and in referred proceedings. Her research has received more than 6500 Google citations with an h-index 46 and an i10-index 86.