Mike John Wingfield FAAS FRSSAf is a South African professor and the founding director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (

FABI The history of Chinese currency spans more than 3000 years. Currency of some type has been used in China since the Neolithic age which can be traced back to between 3000 and 4500 years ago. Cowry shells are believed to have been the earliest ...

), University of Pretoria.

Early life and education

Mike John Wingfield was born on 21 April 1954 in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

, South Africa. He earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in Botany from the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu- ...

in 1976, before completing a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...

in plant pathology from the Plant Protection Research Institute,

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

, in 1979, graduating with Honours. He earned his doctorate in

entomology Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and

plant pathology Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomyc ...

from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1983. Wingfield also graduated from the

Advanced Management Program An Advanced Management Program (AMP) is an intensive non-degree senior executive education program often offered by elite business schools and aimed at senior managers and government officials. It is offered by business schools in several parts of ...

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

in 2008.

Career

At the Plant Protection Research Institute,

, 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 The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary se ...

after relocating there in 1988. Wingfield was named to the Mondi Paper Co. Ltd. Chair in

forest pathology Forest pathology is the research of both biotic and abiotic maladies affecting the health of a forest ecosystem, primarily fungal pathogens and their insect vectors. It is a subfield of forestry and plant pathology. Forest pathology is part o ...

in 1994. Wingfield was the founding director of the

Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute The Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) ( Pretoria) was established in 1997 and is located on the University of Pretoria campus. The goal of the institute is to help the development of novel food and fibre crops, that will c ...

(FABI),

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

, until 2007. FABI was founded in 1998 due to Wingfield's work in 1990 to create the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme. He continued as a Professor at FABI and an advisor to the Executive Board of the University of Pretoria. 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 The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) (french: Union Internationale des Instituts de Recherches Forestières, german: Internationaler Verband Forstlicher Forschungsanstalten, es, Unión Internacional de Institutos de ...

(IUFRO) between 2014 and 2019. His collaboration with Chinese academics led to the formation of the CERC/FABI Tree Protection Programme (CFTPP), a joint venture between the

and the

China Eucalyptus Research Centre China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(CERC).

Research

Wingfield research focuses on

forest protection Forest protection is a branch of forestry which is concerned with the preservation or improvement of a forest and prevention and control of damage to forest by natural or man made causes like forest fires, plant pests, and adverse climatic con ...

and health,

mycology Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, a ...

, entomology, and

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

. 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 A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of Flowering plant, flowering trees, shrubs or Mallee (habit), mallees in the Myrtaceae, myrtle Family (biology), family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the Tribe (biology) ...

, and other significant plants. He and his students have added new understanding about various pathogens, including

Ceratocystis ''Ceratocystis'' is a genus of fungi in the family Ceratocystidaceae. Several species are important plant pathogens, causing diseases such as oak wilt and pineapple black rot. Species *'' Ceratocystis acericola'' *'' Ceratocystis acoma'' *'' Ce ...

Ophiostoma ''Ophiostoma'' is a genus of fungi within the family Ophiostomataceae. It was circumscribed in 1919 by mycologists Hans Sydow and Paul Sydow. Species *''Ophiostoma adjuncti'' *''Ophiostoma ainoae'' *''Ophiostoma allantosporum'' *'' Ophiostoma a ...

Mycosphaerella ''Mycosphaerella'' is a genus of ascomycota. With more than 10,000 species, it is the largest genus of plant pathogen fungi. The following introduction about the fungal genus ''Mycosphaerella'' is copied (with permission) from the dissertation o ...

Fusarium ''Fusarium'' is a large genus of filamentous fungi, part of a group often referred to as hyphomycetes, widely distributed in soil and associated with plants. Most species are harmless saprobes, and are relatively abundant members of the soil ...

Cryphonectria ''Cryphonectria'' is a fungal genus in the order Diaporthales. The most well-known and well-studied species in the genus is '' Cryphonectria parasitica'', the species which causes chestnut blight. The genus was, for a time, considered synonymous ...

, and

Armillaria ''Armillaria'' is a genus of fungi that includes the '' A. mellea'' species known as honey fungi that live on trees and woody shrubs. It includes about 10 species formerly categorized summarily as ''A. mellea''. ''Armillarias'' are long-l ...

species. 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. 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. Wingfield is an international expert on Plant Health with an h-index of 115 and more than 65 000 citations as of December 2022. He is always included in the Web of Science list of the world's most cited researchers since 2018.

Awards and honours

Wingfield is a member of the

Academy of Science of South Africa The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) is the national science academy in South Africa. It was started in 1996, and encompasses all fields of scientific work. Its legal foundation is the ''Academy of Science of South Africa Act'', Act 6 ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of South Africa The Royal Society of South Africa is a learned society composed of eminent South African scientists and academics. The society was granted its royal charter by King Edward VII in 1908, nearly a century after Capetonians first began to conceive of ...

in 1998, and a Fellow of the

African Academy of Sciences The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) is a non-aligned, non-political, not-for-profit, pan-African learned society formed in 1985. The AAS elects fellows ( FAAS) and affiliates. The AAS also awards the Obasanjo Prize for Scientific Discovery a ...

in 2016. For his contributions and collaboration in the field of forestry, Wingfield was awarded the

Christiaan Hendrik Persoon Christiaan Hendrik Persoon (1 February 1761 – 16 November 1836) was a German mycologist who made additions to Linnaeus' mushroom taxonomy. Early life Persoon was born in South Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, the third child of an immi ...

Medal by the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology society in 1999, the University of Pretoria Chancellor's Medal Award in 2008, the Johanna Westerdijk award from the CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Netherlands in 2012, the

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. ...

Award from the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of member states of the African Union, 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling fo ...

in 2013, the University of Minnesota's Distinguished Leadership Award in 2016,

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanic ...

Medal, the highest accolade from the Royal Society of South Africa, in 2017, the Chinese Government's

Friendship Award The Chinese Government's Friendship Award () is the People's Republic of China's highest award for "foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the country's economic and social progress". The award was first established in 1950s, ...

in 2017, National Science and Technology Forum-South32 Special Annual Theme Award: Plant Health on 30 July 2020, and

Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award The Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award is awarded annually by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. It is considered the top award for research on the African continent. In Memory of Harry Oppenheimer The Award was created in 2001, in South Africa, by ...

in 2022. Wingfield received an honorary doctorate of science (DSc) from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

in 2012, and the

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universi ...

in 2013. Wingfield has three fungi named after him: '' Leptographium wingfieldii sv">:sv:Leptographium wingfieldii">sv'' '' Sterigmatomyces wingfieldii'', and '' Asterina wingfieldii.''

Personal life

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

References

External links

''A global perspective on tree health: Celebrating the United Nations 2020 International Year of Plant Health''
Innagural lecture by Prof. Mike Wingfield on 29 June 2021 at the National Science and Technology Forum on YouTube. {{authority control South African scientists 1954 births Living people University of Minnesota alumni Stellenbosch University alumni University of Pretoria faculty Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society of South Africa