Pieter De Maayer

Biography

I did my MSc in applied microbial systematics at the University of Gent, Belgium, before returning to South Africa to complete my PhD at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria in 2010. Subsequently I completed a one year University of Pretoria postdoctoral fellowship linked to FABI and a half year SANBI postdoctoral fellowship, and a one and a half year UP postdoctoral fellowship in Prof Don Cowan’s group, the Centre of Microbial Ecology and Genomics (CMEG). In 2014 I was awarded a five year NRF Research Career Advancement Fellowship at CMEG, University of Pretoria. My research interests and expertise encompasses several fields, including bacterial systematics, microbial ecology, microbial biotechnology, phytobacterial pathogens and plant pathology, genome sequencing, assembly, annotation and comparative genomics as well as the use of omics technologies. I am involved in several collaborative projects between the University of Pretoria and the James Hutton Institute (Dundee, Scotland), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW, Zurich, Switzerland) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany). My current research focuses on the thermophile Geobacillus, its genomics, systematics and physiology. In particular, I am performing cutting-edge research on the development and use of Geobacillus for the production of sustainable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly energy alternatives, namely bioethanol and hydrogen. For the latter we have recently received German Bioeconomy 2030 (BiBasis) funding.

Research Interest

My current research focuses on the thermophile Geobacillus, its genomics, systematics and physiology. In particular, I am performing cutting-edge research on the development and use of Geobacillus for the production of sustainable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly energy alternatives, namely bioethanol and hydrogen.