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The American society for Plant Biology publishes highly respected journals like Plant Physiology and The Plant Cell. They analyzed citations to their journals for papers published between 2009 and 2013 to identify authors from around the world publishing the most influential science. They have recognized that, former IEB PhD-student, Dr. Antonio Leon-Reyes is on of the of Latin-America. The Institute of Environmental Biology congratulates Dr. Leon Reyes on this achievement.

Antonio Leon-Reyes originally studied at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, where he obtained a BSc in agribusiness engineering and chemistry in 1999. He worked as technical manager of cut flowers crops, being responsible for pathogen and insect control, soil–plant nutrition, and postharvest management at several flower companies. He then completed his MSc in plant breeding and genetic resources at Wageningen ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ before obtaining a PhD in plant–microbe–interactions at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ, working under the direction of Prof. Corne Pieterse in the Netherlands in 2009.

Antonio has held research positions at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ (the Netherlands), Gent ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ (Belgium), and Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and teaching positions in Ecuador at Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas–ESPE, Universidad Central del Ecuador, and Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Since January 2010, he has been a professor of agriculture and food science at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. His main research interest is strengthening the plant immune system by using elicitors to bust systemic resistance and find parameters to control mineral nutrition to increase the plant’s self-defense. He has participated in several major conferences and published in many high-ranking international journals.