Uwe Sonnewald

Prof. Dr. Uwe Sonnewald

Head of Biochemistry division

Department Biologie
Chair of Biochemistry (Prof. Dr. Sonnewald)

Room: Raum 01.370 (Bau A2)
Staudtstr. 5
91058 Erlangen

Education and training

1980 – 1986 Study of Biology at the University of Cologne with Diploma in Biology
Supervisor for Diploma thesis: Prof. Dr. Ruth Ehring
1986 – 1989 PhD work at the Institut für Genbiologische Forschung associated with the Freie Universität Berlin and
University of California, San Diego (UCSD, La Jolla)
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Lothar Willmitzer
1993 Habilitation in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Biology of the University Göttingen

Professional positions

1989 – 1992 Group leader of the carbohydrate section at the department of Prof. Dr. L. Willmitzer at the Institut für Genbiologische Forschung, Berlin
1992 – 1998 Group leader Molecular Plant Physiology at the Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben, Germany
1998 – 2004 Appointed Professor (C4) at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle/Wittenberg for Molecular Cell Biology of Plant Systems and as head of the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the IPK
1998 Co-founder of SunGene, a R&D company in the field of plant biotechnology; joint venture with BASF Plant Science
2004 – today Appointed professor (C4) at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and head of the Division of Biochemistry
2007 – 2011 Head of Biology Department and Vice Dean Faculty of Sciences of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
2013 – 2015 Vice Dean of International Affairs of the Faculty of Sciences of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Editorial Boards

1999 – 2007 Subject Editor for Biotechnology “Journal of Plant Physiology”
2003 – 2008 Co-Editor “The Plant Cell”
2010 – 2012 Co-Editor-in-Chief “Frontiers of Plant Science”
2017 – today Senior Editor of “Journal of Integrative Plant Biology”
2017 – 2020 Member of the Editorial Board for Plant Biology “Scientific Reports”
2019 – today Editor-in-Chief of “Journal of Plant Physiology”

Other notable activities

1996 – today Member of the Central Commission of Biological Safety (ZKBS)
2000 – 2004 Coordinator of Plant MetaNet, a research network between the IPK-Gatersleben, the IPB-Halle, the MPI of Chemical Ecology, Jena and the MPI for Molecular Plant Physiology, Golm
2000 – 2005 Coordinator of the EU consortium PROFOOD
2000 – 2008 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute of Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere (ICG), Jülich, Germany
2004 – 2008 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences, Netherlands
2004 – 2008 Member of the advisory board of BASF Plant Sciences
2004 – 2008 Member of DFG Senatskommission für Grundsatzfragen der Genforschung
2004 – 2008 Member of the DFG Panel 202 “Pflanzenwissenschaften”
2004 – 2011 Member of the Advisory Board of “Verbund Biowissenschaftlicher und Biomedizinischer Gesellschaften (VBBM, VBIO)”
2004 – 2011 Member of the Advisory Board of the Heidelberg Institute of Plant Sciences
2005 – 2007 Member of the EFSA Self Tasking Working Group “Guidelines for the assessment of genetically modified plant used as production platform for non-food products”
2005 – 2011 Member of the international scientific advisory board of the Laboratorio de Genetica Molecular Vegetal, Barcelona, Spain
2006 – today Member of the Advisory Board for the Exzellenznetzwerk des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt zum Forschungsschwerpunkt “Biowissenschaften – Struktur und Mechanismen der biologischen Informationsverarbeitung”
2007 – 2015 Member of the Selection Committee of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
2009 – 2017 Coordinator of the SFB 796, Reprogramming of Host cells by Microbial Effectors
2013 – 2020 Member and chairman of the scientific advisory board of the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ)
2014 – today Coordinator of the Bill & Melinda Gates project, Metabolic engineering of carbon pathways to enhance yield of root and tuber crops (CASS)
2017 – today Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the DynaMo Center at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University Copenhagen, Denmark

Awards and honours

1992 Federation of European Societies of Plant Physiology Award
2011 Germany Land of Ideas, selected Landmark 2011
2017 Innovation Award of the BioRegions Germany
2020 Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina

Publications