​Host: Prof. Jhonathan Ephrath
Current Position: Associate Professor, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, Austrian University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria

​I am a botanist studying plant ecophysiology, particularly resource uptake/use, plasticity of architecture, morphology and physiology under competition and stress, and plant and ecosystem carbon fluxes. Working in both agricultural and forest production systems, my studies focus on root systems, their traits, and symbionts. Currently, I hold a tenure track professorship (currently: Assoc. Professor) for Root Ecology at the Austrian University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) in the Department of Forest and Soil Sciences. Initially, I bu​ilt my career starting with a PhD thesis in the field of Plant Ecology at Göttingen University, Germany. It was during this time that I met BGU researcher Jonathan Ephrath during a COST action, resulting in two short but successful research stays at the French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands at Sde Boker before I took the chance to apply for a BCSC scholarship in the lab of Yoni Ephrath and Shimon Rachmilevitch. Coming from a tree and forest ecology-related field of science in a temperate climate, this first postdoctoral position in the highly productive environment of BGU's desert campus clearly positively influenced my career. Being mentored towards scientific rigor and academic independence, the postdoctoral fellowship enabled me to gather experience in both agricultural and ecology-related topics under the extreme environmental conditions of the desert. This is clearly a place where plants must rely on effective root systems to thrive! Given the high scientific output achieved during my stay, it felt easy to secure a second postdoctoral position at BOKU, where I have continued my career until today. As a scientist working on a very diverse set of scientific questions related to Functional Plant Ecology and Biogeochemistry, I was able to become Editor-in-Chief of the Functional Plant Ecology Section, in Frontiers in Plant Science. Living today in lovely Vienna, Austria with my Israeli wife and two kids, we still frequently remember Sde Boker and the great time our younger selves had there, working with friends in a scenic landscape towards a sustainable future. ​

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