dr.ir. LHJ (Huub) Kerckhoffs

I graduated in Wageningen as a crop physiologist, and my PhD also from Wageningen (Dept of Plant Physiological Research) was about physiological functions of plant photoreceptors in model species (tomato, garden pea, Arabidopsis). I spent significant time during my PhD in photobiological laboratories in UK (Leicester University), Japan (Riken, Wako-shi), and USA (University of Georgia, Athens, GA), followed by postdoctoral fellowships in USA (ibid) and Australia (University of Tasmania, Hobart), and moved to NSW as a plant physiologist in rice at the NSW Dept of Agriculture (Yanco, NSW).

Then I moved to NZ and became a science leader involved in a wide range of large government funded/commercial research projects in agriculture/horticulture domains (sustainable production/vegetables/kiwifruit/vertical farming etc) within Plant & Food Research (Hawke’s Bay), Massey University (Palmerston North), Start-A-Fresh (Mount Maunganui) and Greengrower Vertical Farms (Hamilton). At Massey University, I started and was director of a new Bachelor of Horticultural Science and MSc Horticultural programs with two Chinese universities (in Guangzhou and Harbin).