Finishing an enriching PhD journey - Doctoral defense of our graduate Eduardo Fernández

In the afternoon of the 27th of April, and after the opening words of the chairman Prof. Dr. Mathias Becker, our PhD candidate Dr. Eduardo Fernández defended his doctoral work titled “Dormancy in temperate fruit trees - Perspectives for farming in changing climate.”

The defense took place virtually (hosted by our HortiBonn member Dr. Cory Whitney) and was assessed by Prof. Becker as chairman, Prof. Dr. Eike Luedeling as first supervisor, Prof. Dr. Thomas Doering as second supervisor, Prof. Dr. Patrick Brown (UC Davis) as external expert, and Prof. Dr. Matthias Langensiepen as specialist member.

In about 30 minutes, Mr. Fernández summarized and reported on the key findings of four scientific publications developed in his 3 years of work at the Department of Horticultural Science of the University of Bonn. Toward the end of the presentation, he provided key conclusions that should be considered to ensure the cultivation of temperate fruit species in the context of global warming and climate change.

Among these, it should be mentioned the “need for better modeling approaches integrating the knowledge on the physiology of dormancy.” In the perspective of Mr. Fernández, “this is widely expected to help us improve our estimations of chill requirement and chill accumulation in temperate trees considering that current available models have failed specially in mild winter climates.” Temperate fruit species require a cold stimulus during winter to overcome a dormant state, so quantifying this cold necessity has became critical in orchard management and planning specially in a planetary warming context.

After a session of interesting questions from the audience - which joined the meeting from different countries and time zones - Mr. Fernández and the committee started the private scientific discussion. Taking into account the thesis, the presentation, and the scientific discussion, the committee resolved grading Mr. Fernández with the grade suma cum laude for his excellent PhD work. At HortiBonn we congratulate our recent graduate for his achievement.

Please visit our publications page to take a look at some of the works Mr. Fernández has developed.