Patrick Van Damme
Professor
Ghent University
Belgium
Biography
Patrick has extensive experience with teaching and R&D in (sub)tropical agriculture and ethnobotany in the (sub)tropics. As a ‘general tropical agronomist’, he started his career as a research fellow with IITA in Ibadan (plant protection, 1979). He then moved on as associate expert to FAO, and was stationed in northern Senegal (plant protection x vegetable production; 1980 – 1982). Subsequently, he integrated Ghent University (GU), first as a research assistant in forestry, then in tropical agronomy. In 1989, he obtained his GU PhD in tropical agronomy (field: ecophysiology). He became full professor at GU in 1992, and at Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, in 2012. He has (co-)managed > 50 R&D projects in the tropics, financed by EC (INCO-DEV), Flemish interuniversity cooperation, Belgian development aid, IDB, IICA,… concentrating on (medicinal) plant domestication, sustainable development and (medicinal) plants value chains. He has extensive hands-on, policy development experience in > 30 African countries, most of Latin America, > 10 Asian countries, and collaborates/d with academic, research and development partners all over the world. At UG, he is chair of the Centre for Sustainable Development, and of the Ghent University Association Africa Platform. He is member of several professional societies (Economic Botany,…), vice-chair of the International Foundation for Science, chair of the European Forum for Agricultural Research for Development (www.efard.eu), and executive committee member of the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (www.gfar.net). He is expert committee member for the CITES (plants) and Carthagena protocols (Belgium), and also advises on CBD/ABS-related matters.
Research Interest
He published > 600 scientific articles, books and book chapters, with ~ 210 in peer-reviewed journals with impact factor (WoS).