Aleksandr Nikolaevich Ignatov

Aleksandr (Alex) N. Ignatov

Professor, People's Friendship University of Russia (RUDN)

Dr. Alex Ignatov was born in Moscow region, Russia, at 1965. He obtained his diploma in Agronomy at the Russian State Agricultural University – MSKHA, with a specialization in Plant Protection/Plant Pathology (1987). After graduation, he worked in the All-Union Research Institute of Phytopathology (Dept. Fungal diseases of cereals), and moved to continue education as PhD student in the Russian Institute of Vegetables Breeding, where, he obtained his degree in Plant Breeding and Plant Protection (1992), specializing in Brassica plants genetic and induced resistance to bacterial pathogens.

He had a first post-doc position (1994-95) at the Horticulture Research International – Wellesbourne (currently HRI-Warwick University, UK) studying plant bacterial diseases in Dr. John D. Taylor’s group, and continued this research as JSTA Fellow at National Institute of Vegetable, Ornamental Plants and Tea, Japan (1997-98) in Department of Prof. H. Yoshikawa.

In 1998 he has got a position of senior researcher at the Center “Bioengineering” of Russian Academy of Sciences working on genetic flow from GM plants in cereals, brassicas, and soybeans. At 2007, he achieved a degree of Doctor of Science in Biology. At 2009 as lead researcher, he was appointed as head of Molecular Phytopathology Lab. and worked till 2015.

Main results of his work are in fields of plant/pathogen diversity, plant pathogenic bacteria and plant virus epidemiology and detection. In 2001, he took part in ISTC Projects 1771p (2001-5) and #3431 (2006-2013) devoted to collection and study of plant pathogenic bacteria in Russia. He has got a post-doc fellowship (2004-5) at Nebraska University, with bench place at FDWSRU-ARS, USDA, Fort Detrick, MD, in Laboratory of Dr. Norman W. Schaad. At 2001-2022 he participated in 17 other projects supported by ISTC, DTRA, and Russian Scientific Funds, and supervised 17 MSc and 8 PhD students.

He had positions of Professor in Russian State Agricultural University (2010-13), Head of Agrobiotechnology Dept. in Russian People’s Friendship University (2013-15), Head of Laboratory of Bacterial Plant Disease, in Russian Research Institute of Phytopathology (2009-2015) and Research Director at R&D Center PhytoEngineering LLC. (2015-2021). His current position - Professor of Agrobiotechnology Dept. in Russian People’s Friendship University (since 2015),

He is an expert of the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (RFFI) and Russian Science Foundation. He is a member of American Phytopathological Society, published over 200 research articles devoted to plant and bacterial genetic diversity, plant pathology, plant breeding, etc.