The Department of Grapevine Breeding is pleased to welcome Prof. Dr. Kai Voss-Fels who has recently joined the faculty to drive research in grapevine breeding and genetic resources. Prior to his appointment at HGU, he spent four year working at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia – one of the world’s leading research institutes in agricultural sciences.

His research is centered in modern genomics-based breeding methods to sustainably increase yield stability in crops such as wheat, barley, canola and grain legumes. He has also focused on genomic performance prediction in clonal selection in sugarcane, as well as simulation-based optimization of breeding programs. Voss-Fels studied at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen and completed his PhD in 2016 in quantitative genetics in wheat. For his PhD thesis, Voss-Fels has won the JLU Dissertation Award sponsored by Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen and the prestigious Kurt von Rümker Award for the best scientific paper published by a junior scientist in the field pf plant breeding in Germany.

He has published his research outcomes in more than 40 renowned peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Plants, Nature, Trends in Plant Science and Molecular Plant, and he works closely with leading national and international research and industry partners. As Professor for Grapevine Breeding he will bring his extensive experience and profound knowledge of modern genomics-based plant breeding to the department.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Kai Voss-Fels and are looking forward to a successful collaboration.