New appointment to the Professorship of Plant Breeding and Ornamental Horticulture
Prof Dr Johannes Nebelmeir is appointed Professor of Plant Breeding and Ornamental Plant Cultivation at the HSWT. He succeeds Prof Dr Bernhard Hauser.
Professor Nebelmeir is well known in Freising: He had studied horticultural sciences at the Technical University of Munich-Weihenstephan and did a doctorate on the subject of „Breeding St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) - development of agronomic and pharmacological selection criteria“. His doctorate was followed by 15 years as a breeder and head of research at Lazzeri Società agricola A R.L. in Merano, South Tyrol, 4 years as Global Head of Breeding at Ernst Benary Samenzucht GmbH in Hann. Münden and finally self-employment.
Mr Nebelmeir therefore has more than 20 years of practical experience in ornamental plant breeding. His tasks enabled him to familiarise himself with breeding both from the perspective of the breeder directly responsible for numerous projects and from the perspective of a higher-level management position. In his roles, he was responsible for the entire product development process, from conception and breeding cycles through to market launch, and was therefore able to shape and support the entire innovation process.
International networks
His breeding projects took him to Italy, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. In terms of cuttings and seed production, there were points of contact with Kenya, Chile and Guatemala. Students will benefit from the fact that Professor Nebelmeir is familiar with the challenges of business practice and is able to communicate these. He is keen to convey the importance of the botanical and plant physiological principles that enable a deeper understanding of ornamental plant cultivation and its successful horticultural production.
Research
For his future research, he sees the goal of enabling Horticulture companies to produce a high-quality product based on excellent genetics and sound plant physiological knowledge with ecologically sensible and economically successful use of the means of production. This includes, in particular, the improvement of variety characteristics and cultivation systems with regard to the sustainable use of resources, i.e. the use of renewable resources and the optimised use of non-renewable resources. His network and good contacts with institutes, breeding companies and horticultural businesses will be a great advantage in this respect.
