Jadwiga Śliwka

Since childhood was fascinated by nature. When studying biology in Kraków, Poland, she visited Bangor University in North Wales, UK, where she first met Phytophthora infestans. Since 2001 employed at Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR-PIB) in Poland and working on potato but spent half of her PhD in Dr. C. Gebhardt's lab in Cologne, Germany, mapping QTL and the Rpi-phu1 gene for late blight resistance, four months in Dr. F. Govers's lab in Wageningen, the Netherlands and almost a year in Dr. J. Jones's lab, the Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK as a postdoc cloning the Rpi-phu1/Rpi-vnt1 gene. Since 2009 a group leader in IHAR-PIB, mapped some more potato resistance genes against late blight (Rpi-mch1, Rpi-rzc1, Rpi-Smira1), PVY (Ny-Smira), potato wart (Sen2) and QTL for potato tuber quality traits  such as starch content, chipping quality, morphology, bruising and greening resistances and recently QTL for resistance to Dickeya solani. Interested also in population genetics of potato pathogens. The first female President of the European Association for Potato Research (2017-2022).