The professor of Plant Production at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) Paul Bielza will be the president of the Spanish Society of Applied Entomology (SEEA) for the next four years. The election was carried out in the General Assembly of the Society, during the IX National Congress of Applied Entomology that took place in Valencia.
Entomology is the science that studies insects and mites, and lApplied entomology focuses on insects and mites that interact with humansfrom pests that damage crops and forests, to mosquitoes and other insects that transmit human diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.
Among the challenges that Bielza poses, it stands out to continue with the dynamization of the Society, through its website, congresses and the SEEA newsletter. In addition, he wants increase transfer to society in general, of the knowledge of great scientific value generated by the partner researchers, which is why transfer and innovation conferences will be organized in different parts of Spain with themes of “great interest” according to the crops in each area. “So that the technicians and farmers of each area know the latest scientific advances in the control of pests of their crops,” he says.
On the other hand, among Bielza’s plans, collaboration with other similar scientific societies in European and American countries stands out.
For him, “it is an honor” to have the confidence of researchers who work in the same field to lead the SEEA for the next four years.
Pablo Bielza is a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He has been Director of the Plant Production Department of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena between 2003 and 2006, and Director of the UPCT Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering from 2006 to 2010. He is also Principal Investigator of the R&D Group ” Crop Protection” since January 2000, which in 2005 obtained the “Isaac Peral y Caballero” Award.
He teaches subjects related to Crop Protection in Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the UPCT, as well as in the Interuniversity Master’s Degree in Plant Health that the UPCT teaches together with the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Miguel Hernández University, and the University of Almeria. He is the researcher responsible for several projects of the National Research Plan (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and the Seneca Foundation (Science and Technology Agency of the Region of Murcia), and of several multinationals in the sector, such as Bayer, BASF, DuPont , Dow, and Syngenta, among others.
As a researcher, he has made various stays in the Department of Entomology of the University of California – Davis (USA), Department of Biology and Biochemistry of the University of Bath (United Kingdom), and the Plant & Invertebrate Ecology Department of Rothamsted Research ( United Kingdom). He has directed seven doctoral theses, and is currently directing another seven.
The Spanish Society of Applied Entomology (SEEA) (www.seea.es) is a non-profit scientific society founded in 1985 with the aim of promoting, facilitating, combining and disseminating research and development work in all branches of the Applied Entomology, from agricultural and forestry entomology to medical-veterinary.
