Disease & Pest Management

Dr. Kubilay Kurtulus Bastas is a Professor of Plant Protection at Selcuk University, Turkey. He completed his graduate work on plant protection and postgraduate work on phytopathology-bacteriology at Ankara University, Turkey; earned his PhD from Selcuk University in Turkey; and earned a postdoctoral degree in molecular phytopathology from Warwick University, UK. He has worked on Erwinia amylovora and onion diseases in Professor S. V. Beer’s bacteriology laboratory at Cornell University, USA. His research areas of interest are plant bacterial diseases, fire blight, seed pathology, and molecular plant bacteriology. His 10 years of teaching and 20 years of research have earned him several awards and scholarships from national (TUBITAK, TMMOB, and YOK) and international (British Council and ERASMUS) foundations. Dr. Bastas has published nearly 150 research papers and several review articles in international refereed journals. He has reported incidences in Turkey of several new bacterial pathogens in cultivations of apples, grapes, beans, berries, some ornamentals, rice, rosehips, and kiwi. He is an active member of professional bodies such as the Turkish Phytopathology Association, the National Fire Blight Working Group, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS), the American Phytopathological Society (APS), the Pathogen and Disease Detection Committee, Bacteriology Committee, and Teaching Committee.

Dr. Tinatin Doolotkeldieva’s academic journey began at Kyrgyz State University, where she earned her M.D. in Biology and Chemistry in 1974. Her passion for microbiology led her to pursue a Ph.D. at the Institute of Biology of the National Academy of Kyrgyz Republic in 1985. Building on her expertise, she embarked on postdoctoral research in Kazakhstan and Russia, specializing in microbiology and biotechnology. In 1999, she joined the Agricultural Department at Kyrgyz Agrarian University as a professor, focusing on microbiology and biotechnology. She is also a Co-PI in the ‘Preservation of Central Asian fruit tree forest ecosystems, pome fruit varieties and germplasm from the recent epidemics caused by the invasive bacterial pathogen Erwinia amylovora (fire blight)’ project funded by the Swiss scientific foundation.

Dr. Gritsenko is an Associate Professor and the head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National Agrarian University, Almaty, Kazakhstan, since 2019. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Engineering and Technology from Al-Farabi KazNU (2006-2010) and her master’s degree in Natural Sciences from Al-Farabi KazNU (2010-2012). She did her PhD in 2019 with a thesis on "Creation of a viral vector for the production of recombinant proteins in plants and the study of their expression efficiency" at the Tolkovsky Laboratory at the Volcani Center Plant Protection Institute in Israel. She was awarded the Nazarbayev Scholarship by the President for academic excellence and high achievements in research in 2011. She has authored over 50 scientific works. Dr. Gritsenko's research interests include the genetic resources and pathology of plants, with a particular focus on studying wild apple species, especially Malus sieversii, the wild ancestor of domesticated apples. Currently, studies are being conducted on the development patterns of Malus sieversii populations in Kazakhstan, focusing on their genetic diversity and population structure.

Dr. Elnara Khankishiyeva Ahmadova is the Deputy Director of the Absheron Experimental Station of the Scientific Research Institute of Fruit- and Tea-growing of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan Republic. She completed her graduate work, bachelor's and master's degrees in Plant Pathology at Azerbaijan State Agricultural University. She earned her PhD from the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Genetic Resources Institute Immunology and Genetics. She performed her research on screening for resistance genes against scab of apple genotypes and application in breeding at the Plant Protection and Gene analysis laboratories at the Julius Kühn Institut Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants in Dresden-Germany. In her research at JKI, she identified Rvi1, Rvi2, Rvi8, Rvi3, Rvi4, Pl2, Rvi9, Rvi11, Rvi12, Rvi13, and Rvi15 genes resistant to the pathogen Venturia inaequalis for the first time in Azerbaijan. She has also led the projects "Preparation and organization of short-term training courses on orchard management" (with the financial support of the German Society for International Cooperation - GIZ - Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), private sector development support project in the South Caucasus) and complex development of villages,  funded by IFAD. In her more than 13 years of research experience, she has published over 30 research papers and review articles in international refereed journals.