Karl-Heinz Kogel

Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Kogel, born in 1956, teaches and researches since 1996 at the Justus Liebig University (JLU) Gießen, Germany. The call on the chair of Plant Diseases and Plant Protection he accepted after various research stays, inter alia, at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot in Israel and at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany. At JLU, Prof. Kogel established several research groups in the field of plant pathology and plant protection with a focus on fungal diseases such as Fusarium Head Blight, powdery mildew and rusts. From 2006 to 2009 Prof. Kogel was Vice President of the JLU responsible for Research and Internationalization.

Prof. Kogel holds a major in Biology and a PhD degree in Plant Physiology from the RWTH Aachen University. His present research focuses are on molecular plant pathology, plant biotechnology, allergy research and plant protection by RNAs. In the latter field, his group discovered possibilities to exploit the RNAi mechanisms to control devastating fungal diseases such as Fusarium Head Blight which can reduce the use of chemical agents. Recently, the work of his research team on the role of small RNA molecules in the development of pathogens and combating diseases have discovered new potential targets for fighting plant diseases.