Fernando García-Arenal re-elected Director of CBGP

The CBGP Council, assembly representing researchers and the rest of employees of the Center, has re-elected Fernando García-Arenal, the CBGP director during the past four years, for a new four-year mandate.

The CBGP Council, assembly representing researchers and the rest of employees of the Center, has re-elected Fernando García-Arenal, the CBGP director during the past four years, for a new four-year mandate.

Fernando García-Arenal got his degree as Ingeniero Agrónomo and as Dr. Ingeniero Agrónomo at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), where he is currently Professor of Plant Pathology.

For over thirty years the research interests of Fernando García-Arenal have focused on the biology of plant-pathogenic viruses. He is best known by his contributions to understand virus evolution, and his research group is considered an international reference in this area. Over the years, significant contributions have been made regarding the characterisation of the genetic variability of plant viruses, the analysis of the genetic structure of their populations and of the factors that shape it, and the mechanisms that generate genetic variability in RNA viruses. Since at CBGP, interests have encompassed the evolution of plant-virus interactions, with pioneering work on the evolution of pathogenicity and virulence, as well as on virus ecology in wild systems.

Fernando García-Arenal has served as Vice-Director for Research at E.T.S. Ingenieros Agrónomos (College of Agriculture) at UPM, as Head of the Department of Biotechnology at UPM, and as Director of CBGP for the initial four years of this Research Centre.