Tomislav CERNAVA

Tomislav Cernava is an associate professor at the University of Southampton. He obtained his PhD at the Institute of Environmental Biotechnology (Graz University of Technology, Austria) in 2015. His research group focuses on the identification of beneficial plant-microbe interactions that can provide the means to reduce agrochemical inputs in agriculture. During the last years he coordinated and supported various research projects aimed at identifying disease-reducing and disease-preventing (soterobionts) microorganisms that naturally occur in the plant microbiota. These microorganisms provide a valuable resource for the development of biological control agents and their discovery is facilitated by the implementation of meta-omics analyses. So far, he has authored more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. His research was supported by Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, Austrian Science Fund (FWF), The Austrian Research Promotion Agency, and National Natural Science Foundation of China.

He joined the IOBC WPRS WG Biological and Integrated Control of Plant Pathogens at the WG meeting in Wageningen, The Netherlands, in 2023.