John Vontas, PhD

Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology & the Agricultural University of Athens

John Vontas is the Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) and Professor at the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA). He received his PhD in Insect Genetics from the AUA (1997). Subsequently Marie Curie fellowships allowed him to work at Cardiff University (1998-01), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (2001-02) and IMBB (2002-04), as a postdoctoral researcher. He was appointed Lecturer at AUA (2004-08) and Associate Prof Department Biology University of Crete (2008-13). He worked at the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) in 2013-2014. He returned to Greece in 2014, as Professor AUA and Researcher at IMBB. His research focus on the control of mosquito disease vectors and agricultural pests, with emphasis on the molecular analysis of mechanisms by which insects develop resistance to insecticides. He teaches in national and international courses and has supervised >40 PhD students and Post Doctoral Researchers, some pursuing careers in academia and industry, worldwide. He has published over 250 papers and was among highly cited researchers Clavirate in 2021 and 2022. He has given a large number of invited talks worldwide and organized many international conferences and symposia. He is member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and member of the Board of Directors of the EU Life alliance. He is Associate Editor in Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology and Editorial Board member in several top-tier journals in his field. He is panel member at the ERC and many funding organizations in Europe and worldwide. He has coordinated >30 major projects, raising a total budget of >40M€.