Prof Dr André Kessler
Cornell University, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Ithaca, United States
Prof Kessler studied ecology, genetics and geobotany, and he received his Masters’ degree at the University of Würzbug (DE) in 1988. He received his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Jena (DE) in 2002. He, subsequently, went to Cornell University in Ithaca (USA). His research focuses on the mechanisms, ecological consequences, and the evolution of plant induced responses to herbivore damage. Plant secondary metabolism is studied as a vehicle of information transfer. The research, therefore, includes, chemical elicitation of plant responses, plant chemistry-mediated alterations in insect population and community dynamics, plant-plant communication, plant-pollinator interactions and plant defence mechanisms against herbivore.