Mike Wingfield

Mike John Wingfield (born 21 April 1954, Durban) is a South African academic and scientist who studies plant pathology and biological control. He was the founding director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria. Wingfield has authored or co-authored over 900 scientific publications and is considered a leading expert in the field of forest health and invasive species. He has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award in 2022. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and the African Academy of Sciences. Wingfield has three fungi named after him.

Professor

Mike Wingfield

FAAS FRSSAf
Born
Mike John Wingfield

(1954-04-21) 21 April 1954
Durban, South Africa
EducationUniversity of Natal (BSC)
Stellenbosch University (MSc)
University of Minnesota (PhD)
Harvard Business School (AMP)
Known forLeptographium wingfieldii
Sterigmatomyces wingfieldii
Asterina wingfieldi
SpouseBrenda Wingfield
AwardsChristiaan Hendrik Persoon Medal, SASPP (1999)
Chancellor's Medal Award, University of Pretoria (2008)
Johanna Westerdijk award, CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre (2012)
Kwame Nkrumah Award, African Union (2013)
Distinguished Leadership Award, University of Minnesota (2016)
John F.W. Herschel Medal, RSSAf (2017)
Friendship Award (China) (2017)
NSTF-South32nAward (2020)
Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award (2022)
Scientific career
FieldsForest protection
Mycology
Entomology
Biotechnology
InstitutionsFABI, University of Pretoria
IUFRO
Stellenbosch University
University of the Free State
ThesisEcology of the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in the north-central United States (1983)

Life and Career

Early life and education

Mike John Wingfield[1] was born on 21 April 1954 in Durban, South Africa.[2][3] He earned a Bachelor of Science in Botany from the University of Natal in 1976,[4] before completing a Master of Science in plant pathology from the Plant Protection Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, in 1979, graduating with Honours.[1][4] He earned his doctorate in entomology and plant pathology from the University of Minnesota in 1983.[5][4] Wingfield also graduated from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2008.[4]

Career

At the Plant Protection Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Wingfield started the country's first forest pathology research programme in 1978. After earning his PhD, he continued the program's expansion. In 1990, he was promoted to full professor in the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry at the University of the Free State after relocating there in 1988. Wingfield was named to the Mondi Paper Co. Ltd. Chair in forest pathology in 1994.[4]

Wingfield was the founding director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, until 2007.[6] FABI was founded in 1998 due to Wingfield's work in 1990 to create the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme.[7] He continued as a Professor at FABI and an advisor to the Executive Board of the University of Pretoria.[6]

Wingfield was the director of the Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology, National Research Foundation, and the President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) between 2014 and 2019.[6][7] His collaboration with Chinese academics led to the formation of the CERC/FABI Tree Protection Programme (CFTPP), a joint venture between the FABI and the China Eucalyptus Research Centre (CERC).[8]

Personal life

Wingfield is married to Brenda D. Fairbairn,[9] one of his main collaborators,[4] a professor of genetics and Deputy Dean at the University of Pretoria, and an Associate Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences since 2016.[10]

Research

Wingfield research focuses on forest protection[11] and health,[12] mycology, entomology,[13] and biotechnology.[14][15] He worked on several projects and partnerships throughout the globe, and his study has improved the knowledge of some of the most complicated and harmful diseases that affect pine, eucalyptus, and other significant plants.[16] He and his students have added new understanding about various pathogens, including Ceratocystis, Ophiostoma, Mycosphaerella, Fusarium, Cryphonectria, and Armillaria species.[17][18][19] His studies on insects that work with some tree diseases' causative agents or serve as their vectors have a significant impact. His team has used traditional and molecular approaches to classify and distinguish infections, define a novel, sometimes cryptic species, and determine evolutionary connections.[20][21] The evolution of host resistance, international quarantines, and disease management are only a few examples of the many fields in which the results of this fundamental study have found practical applications.[22][23]

Wingfield is an international expert on plants, health[24] with an h-index of 115 and more than 65 000 citations as of December 2022.[25] He has been featured in the Web of Science list of the world's most cited researchers since 2018.[26][27][28]

Awards and honours

Wingfield is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.[6] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa in 1998,[29] and a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences in 2016.[6]

For his contributions and collaboration in the field of forestry, Wingfield was awarded the Christiaan Hendrik Persoon Medal by the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology society in 1999,[30] the University of Pretoria Chancellor's Medal Award in 2008,[31] the Johanna Westerdijk award from the CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Netherlands in 2012,[32][33] the Kwame Nkrumah Award from the African Union in 2013,[34][35] the University of Minnesota's Distinguished Leadership Award in 2016,[36] John Herschel Medal, the highest accolade from the Royal Society of South Africa, in 2017,[37] the Chinese Government's Friendship Award in 2017,[8] National Science and Technology Forum-South32 Special Annual Theme Award: Plant Health on 30 July 2020,[38] and Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award in 2022.[9][39]

Wingfield received an honorary doctorate of science (DSc) from the University of British Columbia in 2012,[32] and the North Carolina State University in 2013.[9]

Wingfield has three fungi named after him: Leptographium wingfieldii [sv],[40] Sterigmatomyces wingfieldii,[41] and Asterina wingfieldii.[42]

References
  1. Wingfield, M. J. (Michael John) (1979). Some forest tree diseases in South Africa (Thesis thesis). Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  2. "Wingfield, Michael John (1954-....)". Id Ref. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
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  5. "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
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  7. "Michael Wingfield | World Forestry Congress | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations". www.fao.org. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  8. "Prof Mike Wingfield receives Chinese Government Friendship Award | the University of Pretoria". www.up.ac.za. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  9. Madiba, Dimpho. "University of Pretoria's Prof Michael Wingfield wins prestigious Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award". www.engineeringnews.co.za. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  10. "Wingfield Brenda D. | The AAS". www.aasciences.africa. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  11. Schoch, Conrad L.; et al. (2009-04-01). "The Ascomycota Tree of Life: A Phylum-wide Phylogeny Clarifies the Origin and Evolution of Fundamental Reproductive and Ecological Traits". Systematic Biology. 58 (2): 224–239. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syp020. PMID 20525580.
  12. Keane, P. J.; Kile, G. A.; Podger, F. D.; Brown, B. N. (2000-10-25). Diseases and Pathogens of Eucalypts. Csiro Publishing. ISBN 978-0-643-09884-8. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  13. Pyšek, Petr; Hulme, Philip E.; Simberloff, Dan; Bacher, Sven; Blackburn, Tim M.; Carlton, James T.; Dawson, Wayne; Essl, Franz; Foxcroft, Llewellyn C.; Genovesi, Piero; Jeschke, Jonathan M.; Kühn, Ingolf; Liebhold, Andrew M.; Mandrak, Nicholas E.; Meyerson, Laura A. (2020-12-01). "Scientists' warning on invasive alien species". Biological Reviews. 95 (6): 1511–1534. doi:10.1111/brv.12627. ISSN 1464-7931. PMC 7687187. PMID 32588508.
  14. Stielow, J.B.; Lévesque, C.A.; Seifert, K.A.; Meyer, W.; Irinyi, L.; Smits, D.; Renfurm, R.; Verkley, G.J.M.; Groenewald, M.; Chaduli, D.; Lomascolo, A.; Welti, S.; Lesage-Meessen, L.; Favel, A.; Al-Hatmi, A.M.S. (2015-12-23). "One fungus, which genes? Development and assessment of universal primers for potential secondary fungal DNA barcodes". Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi. 35 (1): 242–263. doi:10.3767/003158515X689135. PMC 4713107. PMID 26823635. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  15. Slippers, Bernard; Crous, Pedro W.; Denman, Sandra; Coutinho, Teresa A.; Wingfield, Brenda D.; Wingfield, Michael J. (2004-01-01). "Combined multiple gene genealogies and phenotypic characters differentiate several species previously identified as Botryosphaeria dothidea". Mycologia. 96 (1): 83–101. doi:10.1080/15572536.2005.11833000. ISSN 0027-5514. PMID 21148832. S2CID 218586722. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  16. Schoch, Conrad L.; Seifert, Keith A.; Huhndorf, Sabine; Robert, Vincent; Spouge, John L.; Levesque, C. André; Chen, Wen (2012-04-17). "Nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region as a universal DNA barcode marker for Fungi". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 (16): 6241–6246. doi:10.1073/pnas.1117018109. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3341068. PMID 22454494.
  17. Crous, Pedro W.; Slippers, Bernard; Wingfield, Michael J.; Rheeder, John; Marasas, Walter F.O.; Philips, Alan J.L.; Alves, Artur; Burgess, Treena; Barber, Paul; Groenewald, Johannes Z. (2006-05-01). "Phylogenetic lineages in the Botryosphaeriaceae". Studies in Mycology. 55 (1): 235–253. doi:10.3114/sim.55.1.235. PMC 2104729. PMID 18490983. S2CID 9450660. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  18. Richardson, David M. (2011-02-23). Fifty Years of Invasion Ecology: The Legacy of Charles Elton. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-3000-7. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  19. Payn, Tim; Carnus, Jean-Michel; Freer-Smith, Peter; Kimberley, Mark; Kollert, Walter; Liu, Shirong; Orazio, Christophe; Rodriguez, Luiz; Silva, Luis Neves; Wingfield, Michael J. (2015-09-07). "Changes in planted forests and future global implications". Forest Ecology and Management. Changes in Global Forest Resources from 1990 to 2015. 352: 57–67. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2015.06.021. ISSN 0378-1127. S2CID 51903755.
  20. Pest Risk Assessment of the Importation Into the United States of Unprocessed Eucalyptus Logs and Chips from South America. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. 2001. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  21. Wylie, F. R.; Speight, Martin R. (2012). Insect Pests in Tropical Forestry. CABI. ISBN 978-1-84593-636-5. Archived from the original on 2023-03-25. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  22. Schoch, C.L.; Crous, P.W.; Groenewald, J.Z.; Boehm, E.W.A.; Burgess, T.I.; de Gruyter, J.; de Hoog, G.S.; Dixon, L.J.; Grube, M.; Gueidan, C.; Harada, Y.; Hatakeyama, S.; Hirayama, K.; Hosoya, T.; Huhndorf, S.M. (2009-06-01). "A class-wide phylogenetic assessment of Dothideomycetes". Studies in Mycology. 64 (1): 1–15. doi:10.3114/sim.2009.64.01. PMC 2816964. PMID 20169021. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  23. Slippers, Bernard; Wingfield, Michael J. (2007-05-01). "Botryosphaeriaceae as endophytes and latent pathogens of woody plants: diversity, ecology and impact". Fungal Biology Reviews. Fungal Endophytes. 21 (2): 90–106. doi:10.1016/j.fbr.2007.06.002. ISSN 1749-4613.
  24. "Baobab disease puzzles scientists". 2004-05-24. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
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  29. "Current Fellows – Royal Society of South Africa". Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
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  31. "University of Pretoria Presents Chancellor's Medal Award". www.up.ac.za. Archived from the original on 2020-10-23. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
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  33. Hawksworth, David L.; Wingfield, Michael J.; Crous, Pedro W. (2012-06-01). "Awards and Personalia". IMA Fungus. 3 (1): A24–A28. doi:10.1007/BF03449329. ISSN 2210-6359.
  34. "Award Ceremony for the AU Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Awards". au.int. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
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  38. Mokgehle, Salmina (2020-11-26). "NSTF-South32 award for Plant Health: Honouring excellence and celebrating Professor Mike Wingfield". South African Journal of Science. 116 (11/12). doi:10.17159/sajs.2020/9010. ISSN 1996-7489. S2CID 229402481. Archived from the original on 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
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  40. Jacobs, Karin; Bergdahl, Dale R.; Wingfield, Michael J.; Halik, Shari; Seifert, Keith A.; Bright, Donald E.; Wingfield, Brenda D. (2004-04-01). "Leptographium wingfieldii introduced into North America and found associated with exotic Tomicus piniperda and native bark beetles". Mycological Research. 108 (4): 411–418. doi:10.1017/S0953756204009748. ISSN 0953-7562. PMID 15209281.
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  42. Hosagoudar, V.B. (2003-11-21). "Asterinaceae of India". Zoos' Print Journal. 18 (12): 1280–1285. doi:10.11609/jott.zpj.18.12.1280-5. ISSN 0973-2535. S2CID 87678469.
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