Vasilis Kokkoris (Can)
After receiving his PhD from the University of British Columbia (UBC) on microbial ecology and completing his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa and at Agriculture/Agri-Food Canada on fungal genetics, Vasilis Kokkoris obtained a position as assistant professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His work centers on microbial ecology and genetics, focusing in particular on one of the most widespread symbiotic organisms on our planet known as mycorrhizal fungi. This group of soil fungi form a resource trade symbiosis with the roots of almost all plants on our planet. Plant roots and fungal hyphae create complex interconnected networks. As a result, underground mycorrhizal highways spread for hundreds of meters, beneath our feet. Vasilis’s research and photomicrography, which demonstrates the unique aspects of their cell organization, have won multiple global awards and have brought attention to the unseen soil microbial world.