TRA 6: “Innovation Pathways to Sustainability Lecture”
February 27, 2020 | 15:00 h - 16:00 h
We invite you to our next lecture in the “Innovation Pathways to Sustainability” Series on February 27th at 3 pm in HS II (Meckenheimer Allee 176).
Our speaker is Prof. Dr. Andreas Weber (University Düsseldorf, speaker of the CEPLAS Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science). After the lecture, please join us for a drink in the lobby room of the “Geozentrum”.
Title of the lecture: Advancing crop yields through enhanced photosynthesis
Abstract:
Enhancing crop yield per unit area land is crucial for meeting the globally increasing food demand and for sustainability. One important target for yield increases is leaf photosynthesis, albeit the connection between the leaf photosynthesis and crop yield is not necessarily a straightforward one. Current approaches to increase photosynthesis and thereby yield include the transformation of C3 to C4 photosynthesis, bypasses to photorespiration, and fully synthetic pathways for CO2 assimilation. In my presentation, I will review current approaches and present novel concepts that hold potential for unprecedented yield gains through ancillary carbon fixation schemes.
Speaker bio:
Andreas Weber is one of the world’s leading experts in characterizing plant solute transporters. His work takes a holistic view of plant metabolism and dissects out how the different plant compartments are integrated through traffic of essential metabolites. He has pioneered many of the assays crucial to understanding the physiology of plants and their transport activities and also has a big- picture view of the roles and evolution of transporters during the origin of plastids in the earliest stages of eukaryotic life on Earth. Andreas Weber holds a W3 Professorial position at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany since 2007. He was the inaugural Director for The Center for Synthetic Life Science at HHU and is now the lead investigator for CEPLAS (Cluster of Excellence in Plant Sciences). CEPLAS unites 50 plant science labs to address the grand challenges of feeding the world’s rapidly growing population through world-class fundamental research on complex plant traits of agronomic relevance that impact on yield and adaptation to limited resources—knowledge that is essential for designing and breeding plants that react in a predictable way to future challenges (SMART plants).
PI Weber has trained 25 PhD students and 24 postdoctoral fellows. His students and postdocs hold positions at prestigious institutions such as University of Tokyo, UC San Diego, Univ of Tübingen, Univ of Erlangen, Univ of Marburg, Univ of Lille, JBI Berkeley, Nobel Foundation Oklahoma, University of Cologne, Umea University, University of Aachen, Michigan State Univ, Heinrich Heine Univ; and in industry, namely MWG Inc, Novozymes Inc, Bayer Inc, and Operon Inc.
