Oscar Vicente

Oscar Vicente
Polytechnic University of Valencia

Oscar Vicente was born in 1956, in Madrid (Spain), where he graduated in Biochemistry in 1976 and obtained his PhD in Sciences in 1983, before spending a three-year postdoctoral period at the Friedich-Miescher Institut, in Basel (Switzerland). In 1988, he moved to the Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, University of Vienna (Austria), where he established and led a research group working on pollen development and its biotechnological applications, and on the molecular characterisation of pollen allergens and plant MAP kinases. As Assistant Professor, from 1991 to 1996, he was responsible for several courses of Experimental Genetics taught at the Faculty of Sciences. Oscar Vicente returned to Spain in 1996, to join the faculty of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, where he is at present Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, teaching different subjects in this area to undergraduate or postgraduate students of Biotechnology, Agronomic Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. His research interest focuses on the study of plant responses to abiotic stress – particularly to drought and soil salinity – and stress tolerance mechanisms. Oscar Vicente is Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV), Cluj-Napoca, Romania.