Dr. Péter Radácsi is a horticultural engineer. His research focuses mainly on medicinal plants, including intraspecific variability (Ocimum spp., Artemisia spp.) and the effect of drought stress on the production and biological active ingredients of different species (Ocimum, Satureja, Melissa spp.). He also works with the introduction of medicinal plants to cultivation practices (Perilla frutescens, Ocimum × africanum). In addition to cultivation practice, he deals in depth with the investigation of essential oil composition with GC-MS methods.

His motto is that you cannot work successfully with plants if you do not love them. Péter Radácsi lives in Budapest with his family. He is the father of two lovely children.

David Papp is doing research on the disease resistance of fruit tree species with special interest on population level plant-pathogen interactions. The emergence of new pathogen species or pathogen races strongly depends on their population genetic diversity and the constantly changing environmental factors. Screening for disease resistant accessions is the basis of resistance breeding work, nowadays often supported by high-throughput phenotyping and molecular genetic methods. David Papp is working to apply these modern methodologies at MATE, with the bold approach to investigate breeding efforts and disease outbreaks in a wider context. David is friendly and communicative, always looking for cooperation.