Olivier Leprince

Olivier Leprince is a Professor of Plant Physiology at l’Institut Agro – Rennes Angers and team leader within the Research Institute for Horticulture and Seeds, Angers, France. He is coordinating a MSc international program on seeds and plant propagation. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Liège (Belgium) in 1992 and worked successively at the University of Guelph (Canada), USDA-ARS Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research, Fort Collins, Colorado (USA), John Innes Centre (UK) and the Wageningen University and Research Centre (NL). Olivier was special visiting professor at the Faculty of Agronomical Sciences at Sao Paulo State University, Brazil in 2014-2018. After pioneering work on understanding how storage conditions in gene banks prevent aging in dry seeds, his research ambition is to obtain a holistic understanding of the molecular networks regulating seed vigor traits that are essential to crop yield and adaptation to climate change. Olivier focusses on how abiotic stress during seed development impacts the acquisition of longevity and regulatory mechanisms controlling seed germination and seedling establishment. He is associate editor of Seed Science Research.