Bio

Nicolas Roux, a Belgian citizen, joined Bioversity International (as of 1^st January 2020 called Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) in May 2003. As Senior Scientist, he leads the Musa Genetic Resources Team. As focal point, he is representing the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in RTB and Genebanks-Platform, and ensures that the activities related to the Global Musa collection (ITC) are maintained at the International standard level. He coordinates the Global Musa Genetic Resources Network (MusaNet, www.musanet.org). He is also the scientific liaison officer for France to assure long term partnership with Agricultural Research Organizations based in France.

His main interest is in genetic resources and more specifically in the conservation and use of vegetatively propagated crops. 32 years’ experience in research on bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) from plant to tissue culture, cell culture, Mutation breeding, cytogenetics, and DNA sequences. He started his career, involved in projects related to the management of genetic resources, with emphasis on Musa spp (bananas). In Venezuela (1988-1993), he managed a tropical fruits plantation and an industrial tissue culture laboratory. As Research Scientist (1993-2003), he worked at FAO/IAEA Laboratories in Vienna on cellular biology and biotechnology including mutation techniques to support conventional breeding programs. He obtained the degree of Agriculture Engineer in Agricultural Sciences (MSc) at the Superior Industrial Institute of the State, Huy- Gembloux-Verviers, Belgium in 1987 and his PhD on  Botany and Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic in 2002.

Nicolas is an adviser to the FAO/IAEA Coordinated Research Project entitled “Molecular tools for quality improvement in vegetatively propagated crops including banana and cassava”. Nicolas is a member of the CGIAR Clonal Crops Task Force in charge of refining and standardization of storage procedures for clonal crops. Between 2003 and 2014, he was the Coordinator of the Global Musa Genomics Consortium (GMGC) which was one of the major drivers behind the concluded sequencing of the Musa genome published in Nature in 2012. He also has overseen work done in cacao and coconut genetic resources conservation and use. With the development of RTB, Nicolas was nominated leader of Theme 1: Conserving and assessing Genetic Resources during its first phase.

His research was written down in more than 100 contributions, resulting in an h-index of 18 and a research gate score of 27.91.