SCHENA Leonardo

Prof. Schena first undertook research in 1994, when he joined the Department of Plant Protection and Applied Microbiology (DPPMA) of the University of Bari. In October 1995 he obtained the degree “Cum laude” in Agriculture Sciences and from January to December 1997, he was a research fellow at the Department of Postharvest Science, The Volcani Center, Israel. In January 1998, he rejoined DPPMA as a Ph.D. student, achieving the degree of Ph.D. in October 2000. Afterwards he was Free Researcher at the DPPMA and, in the meanwhile, Research Scientist at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (Dundee, UK) for an 18 months period. Since March 2007 he is Associate Professor at the Department of Management of Agricultural and Forest Systems, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria.
Prof. Schena’s Curriculum Vitae and list of publications reflect his ability to conduct excellent basic and applied research in plant pathology. He has extensive experience in non-conventional control strategies against soil-borne pathogens and postharvest diseases of fruits and vegetables. Alternative control means include a large number of microbial antagonists, organic and inorganic salts and natural compounds such as chitosan, plant extracts, essential oils, etc. He was a pioneer in the application of molecular methods to characterise microbial antagonists, to study their mechanisms of action and to monitor their populations. Another field of research in which he has been very active is the developed of molecular methods to diagnose and quantify the biomass of a large number of phytopathogenic microorganisms including bacteria (Erwinia amylovora), fungi (Rosellinia necatrix, Verticillium dahliae, Phellinus torulosus) and Oomycota (17 different species of Phytophthora spp.). Recently, he has been involved in the study of the molecular ecology of Phytophthora spp. in natural ecosystems and in the study of the expression profile of resistance genes induced by microbial antagonists.