Curriculum Vitae

Baltasar Escriche is the Director of the Master in Research in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Genetics and Secretary of the Doctoral Program in Biomedicine and Biotechnology at the University of Valencia and belongs to the BTLab team from the research group of Biotechnological Control of Pests (CBP), http://www.cbp.com.es/. He has a positive evaluation of 5 sexennial research periods and the single transference called sexennial period. Google Scholar provides for him 3504 citations, with 32 value for the h-index and 53 value for the i-index.

Several aspects of Bacillus thuringiensis have been studied, with a continuous interest in discovering new bioactive proteins and improving the characterization of the already identified. New agents are essential to be prepared for resistance and to broaden the bioagents application. The main part of the research has been focused on Lepidoptera, because of the most common activity of Bt pesticidal proteins, but research with Coleoptera has been also implemented. Understanding the mode of action of each Bt protein, conventional and new proteins, is the key to its optimal use and preventing the selection of resistant populations. He has spent more than 30 years on this purpose, and still, each day, is finding surprising aspects. He contributed to more than 80 publications mostly in open access and 150 meeting presentations that can exemplify some of these aspects. He has participated in or led over 60 projects. In fact, in the last 5 years, he has participated mostly as PI in 14 projects PI, funded by different sources, including different national and international public institutions, and research agreements with both national and multinational companies. Along this time, it has built a long body of resources, protocols, and collaborations. The problems and science are always global under some point of view, and he has been collaborating with laboratories from the whole world, including ones from the developing countries, such as in Latin America or Africa. Funds obtained from The Rockefeller Foundation, Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, EU PRIMA program, and specific national programs to collaborate with undeveloped countries are proofs of such vocation. His involvement in the crop protection field led him to become a member of 5 scientific societies, with the special relevance of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology (SIP), where served as Secretary/Treasurer and later as President of the Bacteria Division.

Moreover, he is interested in the dissemination of the research and was co-organizer of the meetings of the SIP/IOBC societies and the one from the Spanish Society of Applied Entomology which took place in Valencia. He actively collaborates with bulletins of such societies not only the international ones but also in the national ones and provides some papers in regular journals of the agricultural sector. The implication with the international companies is evidenced by the contacts but, in addition, he has collaborations with national companies (AFRASA, S.A., PROBELTE, S.A.,¿). The contracts were to develop new materials and technology, but in other cases to offer services not present in the market. Another aspect is the technician formation in different methodologies not only by hiring in funded projects but also with tutoring in the laboratory students from regulated technical studies (Professional Formation) and taking part in specific formation actions.

He has been involved in different facets in the formation of young researches as part of his activities as a university professor, with the remarkably tutoring of 3 or 4 research works per year as Ungraduated and Master Thesis. In addition, he has participated in the evaluation commission of about 10 student research works per year from different levels: undergraduate, Master, Ph.D., but also to evaluate university professor positions. The experience allows some of them to follow in science. The doctorate students tutored by him, including several foreign researchers, obtained a high score in their Thesis and all of them have followed research careers in public and private companies or institutions.

He is a senior piece of the CBP group that has been built over decades and contributes to keeping and enlarging it. The research line of discovering new pesticide resources and the work on insect resistance has been nationally and internationally validated. In fact, he has reviewed projects from several autonomic, national, and international research agencies. It is remarkable the collaboration with the DFG (Germany), ARIS (Slovenia), and DLR (Western Balkan) agencies. Moreover, he has been invited to serve as a reviewer of more than 25 journals and has become a member sequentially to the editorial board of 5 journals. Moreover, he has participated as an invited editor for Special Issues related to B. thuringiensis in different journals.