Prof. Bernard Slippers joined the SASPP as a MSc Student in 1996. He completed a PhD in Plant Pathology at the University of Pretoria in 2003, and this was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He returned to the University of Pretoria in 2005 as Senior Lecturer and was promoted to full Professorship in 2013, serving in the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, a position that he continues to hold. He was appointed as Director of the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP) and the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) in 2018. These are both amongst the foremost platforms dealing with tree health research and plant biotechnology in the world.

In his research, Bernard focusses on the ecology, evolution and management of fungi and insects that affect tree health, including systematics, invasion genetics, chemical ecology, and biological control. In this regard, he utilises genetic, genomic, and chemical tools to characterise global patterns of spread of invasive tree pests and pathogens, as well as their population dynamics, communication systems and mating strategies. He has also made important contributions to understanding structure and diversity in plant-associated fungal and insect communities, ranging from population levels to species and communities. This work has led to the discovery of numerous new plant pathogen and pest species of importance to forestry world-wide. Importantly, his work has also contributed to the development of monitoring tools, biological control programs and general management systems for plantation pests. This work also has practical applications nationally and internationally in the management of invasive forest pests. The work on these topics over time has supported the development of extensive global research networks and collections of the causal organisms, providing a substantial foundation for future work.

The research of Prof. Slippers has made a significant contribution to understanding key pest and pathogen groups. For example, one of the areas of his research focus in forest pathology is on pathogens in the Botryosphaeriaceae. Species in this group have been difficult to define for a long period of time, and this confusion has hampered answering questions regarding their evolution, ecology, population genetics, origin, and control. His work together with colleagues and students has provided foundational knowledge to define Botryosphaeriaceae taxa, which has exposed new and important research opportunities. Together with increasing ease of development and power of available population genetics tools, many of which he has been involved in designing, he has been able to address numerous questions in population genetics and molecular ecology of the Botryosphaeriaceae. Currently, there is a rapid growth in available ‘omics’ tools for these fungi, to which his research has also contributed, and these are transforming available tools to study of species, populations, and biology.

The research of Prof. Slippers and his collaborators on the Botryosphaeriaceae, which has an endophytic stage in its life cycle, has also stimulated further exploration of the diversity of the mycobiome. Here, his work has contributed to testing of various tools, characterizing patterns of diversity and factors that influence these patterns. The work is unique in characterizing the mycobiome of Eucalyptus trees, as well as the influence of factors such as host and maternal environment and host genetics on fungal communities in seedlings. These changes are correlated with the response of the trees to pathogens and pests and raise questions such as whether these patterns can be predictive, or whether they could be manipulated for pest and disease management.

A second broad focus of Prof. Slippers research activity has crossed the intersections between plant pathology, entomology and nematology. This has been regarding his work on the Sirex-Amylostereum symbiosis, which is one of the most substantial threats to plantation forestry globally. Here, he has established and led a major research programme on the topic, which supports a national control program in South Africa and is the basis of a number of international collaborative projects. Apart from the practical impact of this work, he has also developed significant research depth on this topic and has addressed several basic questions, including those regarding the diversity and spread of the pest complex and its influence on biological control, basic knowledge on the biology of the mutualism, and the organisms used in the biological control program.

Prof. Slippers has also worked on many other plant pathogens making significant national and international contributions, although perhaps with a lower level of focus than on the Botryosphaeriaceae and the Sirex/Amylostereum symbiosis. Many of his projects have had a global reach or impact and are at the forefront of developments in the research field and have fluence on policy and management. This can for example be seen in the fact that he has led or made significant contributions to 17 review papers in leading international journals, including Science, Trends in Ecology and Evolution and other high impact journals. He has regularly been invited as a keynote speaker at international conferences and has presented a large number of invited talks.

Prof. Slippers has published > 260 papers (ISI all databases), edited a book and has contributed a number of chapters to books. He has maintained a steady stream of publications; on average more than 15 papers annually, including in the top journals in the field including Science, Annual Reviews of Entomology, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Trends in Plant Science, Studies in Mycology, Fungal Biology Reviews, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and others. His publications have significant impact as measured by their citations, accumulating more than 1300 citations annually for three of the last four years. He has an ISI Web of Science (Core collection) H-index of 51 (Google Scholar h-index of 61), accumulating >14 700 citations, and i10 index of 178 and 35 papers cited between 100->840 times. He was recognised on the Clarivate Highly Cited list in 2018, a list that typically includes fewer than 10 South African academics (all fields) and clearly still resides at close to the periphery of this very illustrious grouping.

Prof. Slippers has received the Southern African Association for the Advancement of Science, British Association Medal (Silver), the JE Vanderplank award from the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology, the AU-TWAS regional Young Scientist award, the University of Pretoria’s Exceptional Young Researcher, Exceptional Researcher and Chancellors Medal, amongst others. He holds an NRF B1 rating and was selected as a member of the Global
Young Academy (GYA), South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS), a Young Affiliate of the World Academy of Science (TWAS) and is a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa (ASSAf).

Prof. Slippers is deeply committed to capacity development and has acted as (co-)supervisor or co-supervisor for 26 PhD and 29 MSc students that have completed their degrees and he currently supervises or co-supervises 18 PhD and 8 MSc students. He has also supervised or co-supervised 20 postdoctoral researchers from many different countries of the world. He is a popular teacher, contributing to postgraduate workshops on the philosophy of science, scientific writing, supervisor-student engagement and related matters. He has also been deeply engaged in developing many of the postgraduate support systems that are applied at the University of Pretoria including the seminar series, research discussions, stage gate postgraduate student evaluation and others.

Prof. Slippers is an editor of the leading international journal Plant Pathology and was until 2019 also an editor of the journal Fungal Ecology. He has likewise been a “Special Issue Editor” for two leading international journals in Mycology, namely Fungal Biology and Studies in Mycology and he has reviewed papers for more than 30 other journals in his research field. He is a regular contributor to national and international congresses having delivered invited talks at international conferences, workshops or at research institutions on a number of occasions across Asia (China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia), Europe (UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Germany and more), the USA and Canada, and South America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay), as well as at many national conferences. These include keynote addresses. He serves or has served regularly as the organizer of workshops or conferences, nationally and internationally. Recently he was involved in hosting the Annual Congress of the International Society for Chemical Ecology in 2020, the Southern African Society of Plant Pathology in 2021 (postponed from 2020) and leaded the team that hosted the SASPP in 2022.

Prof. Slippers has contributed substantially to Science Leadership as a Founding Member, the Executive Leadership and Co-chair of the Global Young Academy and South Africa Academy of Science. He has led the development and served as Director of the Africa Science Leadership Programme and the transdisciplinary Future Africa Institute at the University of Pretoria. He currently leads the development of the Innovation Africa @UP Research Park. In this regard, he has penned a number of articles and letters on these activities in Nature and other journals.
Bernard and his wife Jana have served as Heads of Residence of two residences at the University of Pretoria for 10 years. Bernard also has many interests outside academic institutions. These include reading (in particular history, biographies and sociology), running, gardening (with a particular interest in Clivia genetics and breeding) and flyfishing. He also writes on some of these topics. He dreams of being a drummer one day.