Andreas Vilcinskas
Professor Dr. Andreas Vilcinskas is currently the Director of the Institute for Insect Biotechnology, which he has founded at the Justus-Liebig Institute of Giessen in 2015 (app. 50 employees) and the head of the Bioresources branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) in Giessen (app. 100 employees), for which a new building (€ 36 million) has been built and which is expected to become an independent Fraunhofer Institute. Further, he is the coordinator and the spokesman of the LOEWE-Center for Insect Biotechnology and Bioresources, funded by the Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts (HMWK) via the excellence program LOEWE (€ 53 Million, 2014-201922). Thus far, his team and he have raised approximately € 120 million in funding. His expertise covers many areas of biodiversity research, ecology, evolutionary biology and zoology, as well as genomics, proteomics, epigenetics, drug discovery and biotechnology. He created the Master program Insect Biotechnology and Bioresources at the Justus-Liebig University and graduated more than 200 Bachelor’s (between 1999 and 2008 diploma undergraduate) students and 75 Master’s (and diploma) students, as well as 32 PhD students and seven habilitations. Six of his previous postdocs have been appointed as professors and eleven have become permanent positions in research facilities. At the managerial level, he has been extensively immersed in project acquisition and management, human resources, operations, technology and information management, supervision of large groups, financial accounting, marketing, licensing, contract negotiations, product development, strategic planning, due diligence, IP filing, and engagement with regulatory bodies. He used to consult extensively for the BMBF, the BMEL, DFG and the European Commission. He therefore served on multiple scientific and program advisory boards and working groups.
Abstracts this author is presenting: