Dr. Simone Prospero

Education

• 2007 - present: Researcher at WSL

• 2005 - 2007:  Post Doc at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), Team of Forest Pathology (Dr. B. Lung), Bordeaux, France

• 2003 - 2005: Post Doc at Oregon State University, Dept. of Botany and Plant Pathology (Prof. E. Hansen), Corvallis, Oregon, USA

• 1999 - 2003: PhD at WSL (Prof. O. Holdenrieder, Dr. D. Rigling)

• 1991 - 1997: Studies of Forest Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich

• 1972 born in Locarno, citizen of Malvaglia (TI, Switzerland)

Research interests

I am interested in the biology and ecology of fungal pathogens of forest trees in natural and artificial (plantations) ecosystems. My research activity has focused on three different model organisms:

1) Phytophthora ramorum (Oomycete), the causal agent of Sudden Oak Death

2) Cryphonectria parasitica (Ascomycete), the chestnut blight fungus

3) Armillaria ostoyae (Basidiomycete), the Armillaria root rot fungus

Hobbies

Playing accordion, hiking in Val Malvaglia, cultivating grapes (and enjoying vine …), reading, politics