Prof Dr H.W. Vriezen

Wim Vriezen holds the Chair of Plant Functional Genomics at the Brightlands Future Farming Institute since September 2023. The institute is part of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and is located at the Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo.  His research is aimed at better understanding traits that are important for the growth and product quality of vegetable crops. Understanding traits at the genomic level is necessary to develop strategies to further improve these traits in crops. 
Wim received his Ph.D. from Radboud University Nijmegen in 2000 for his research on the mechanism that helps plants survive flooding. He then continued his basic molecular research at Utrecht University and the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology. In 2003, he started his own research line on tomato fruit set at Radboud University, where he was appointed assistant professor. In 2008, he joined the vegetable seed industry as a manager of scientific projects to apply academic knowledge to breeding. In 2023, however, he returned to academia to use the combined knowledge of academia and the breeding business for value-added research to meet the crop needs of future agriculture.