Maurice Moens, PhD

Maurice Moens is Honorary Director of Research at the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) at Merelbeke, Belgium and honorary professor at Ghent University, Belgium where he gave a lecture course on Agro-nematology at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering. He is a past-director of the Post Graduate International Nematology Course (MSc Nematology) and coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus - European Master of Science in Nematology, where he gave five lecture courses on Plant Nematology. The MSc course is organized in the Faculty of Sciences of Ghent University. He graduated as an agricultural engineer from Ghent University and obtained a PhD at the same University on the spread of plant-parasitic nematodes and their management in hydroponic cropping systems. Within the framework of the Belgian Cooperation, he worked from 1972 to 1985 as a researcher in crop protection, including nematology, at two research stations in Tunisia. Upon his return to Belgium, he was appointed as senior nematologist at the Agricultural Research Centre (now ILVO). There, he expanded the research in plant nematology over various areas covering molecular characterization, biology of host-parasite relationships, biological control, resistance and other forms of non-chemical control. He was appointed head of the Crop Protection Department in 2000 and became Director of Research in 2006. He retired from both ILVO and Ghent University in 2012 but continued to supervise PhD students until 2017. In 2001, he was elected Fellow of the Society of Nematologists (USA) for outstanding contributions to Nematology; in the same year he was elected Fellow of the European Society of Nematologists for outstanding contribution to the science of Nematology. In 2012 he was elected Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Society for Plant Nematology, and in 2013 he became Honorary Member of the Russian Society of Nematologists. He supervised 27 PhD students, who are active in nematology all over the world. He is past-president of the European Society of Nematologists (2010-2014). He co-edited Root-knot Nematodes (2009) and the first (2006) and second (2013) editions of the text book, Plant Nematology. He is author or co-author of ten book chapters and refereed reviews and over 150 refereed research papers. He is a member of the editorial board of the Russian Journal of Nematology.