Plant Phenotyping across borders: overcoming technological and structural bottlenecks
Speaker:
Prof. Uli Schurr (ForschungszentrumJülich IBG-2: Plant Sciences and Chair for Plant Sciences at University Duesseldorf)
Date: May 29th 2020 / Time: 14:00 (Berlin Time) / 7.00 AM (CDT)
Watch the recorded webinar online
Abstract:
Quantitative analysis of structure and function of plants has become a major bottleneck that is needed to identify the associations between phenotypic and genotypic data that is required for practical applications and basic science. A coordinated effort is required to effectively address this gap and enable a close interaction between phenotyping experts and users from different disciplines to specifically address the demand and requirements of different disciplines.
The EU funded research infrastructure projects such as EPPN2020 or the ESFRI listed project EMPHASIS aim at integrating the plant phenotyping community in Europe and to address this bottleneck. While the EPPN2020 project enables practical access to plant phenotyping installations for user driven plant phenotyping experiments in Europe, the EMPHASIS project develops a long term sustainable operation of the infrastructure.
In this presentation, I will introduce the current state of the art in the plant phenotyping community by presenting the currently available infrastructure with best case examples of the application of this infrastructure. Plant phenotyping infrastructure combines the application of non-invasive sensor technologies for quantitative measurement of plant traits under various scenarios in controlled growth chambers, semi-controlled greenhouses, under field conditions, complemented by a modeling platform and a relevant e-infrastructure. Specifically, we would address and discuss the needs for the horticultural application for basic science and practical application.
CV:
1982 – 1988 Studies Biology (University Bayreuth)
1988 – 1991 Ph.D. (Effect of soil drought on xylem and phloem transport in Ricinuscommunisand its importance for root-shoot interaction; University Bayreuth (Prof. Ernst-Detlev Schulze)
1991 – 2001 Group leader – Institute for Botany University Heidelberg (Prof. Mark Stitt)
2000 Habilitation – Botany (University Heidelberg)
2001 – present Forschungszentrum Jülich Institute Director
2004 – 2011 Member of Executive Board of European Plant Science Organization (EPSO)
2006 – 2008 Research Director for Earth and Environment, Forschungszentrum Jülich
2006 – present Member of Executive Board – European Technology Platform Plants for the Future
2008 – 2011 Vice President EPSO
2010 – present Chairman of the Bioeconomy Science Centers (BioSC)
2012 – present Coordinator - European Plant Phenotyping Network (EPPN)
2012 – present Member Science Advisory Board - German Association for Private Plant Breeding/ GFPi
2012 – present CEO - QS Science Fund - Fruits, Vegetables and Potato
2012 – present Member of the Center of Excellence in Plant Sciences - CEPLAS
2012 – present Coordinator of the German Plant Phenotyping Network (DPPN)
2013 – present Program speaker for the Helmholtz Program Key Technologies for the Bioeconomy
2015 – 2017 Chairman of European Technology Platform Plant for the Future
2015 – present Chairman of the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN e.V.)
2016 - present Chairman of the ESFRI-project EMPHASIS European Infrastructure for Plant Phenotyping
2018 ff Member of the Excellence Cluster CEPLAS – Cluster for Plant Sciences
2018 ff Member of the Board of the Excellence Cluster PhenoRob – Robotics and Machine Learning for Plant Phenotyping and Precision Agriculture
2018 ff Member of the Commission for Biological Safety (appointed by the Federal Minister of Agriculture)
2018 ff Member of the EPSO board and vice-president of EPSO