Johan Baars

Johan Baars is a Researcher in the Department of Plant Breeding at Wageningen University & Research. His work focuses on fungal biology, food microbiology, and sustainable biotechnological applications. He has been actively involved in projects addressing mushroom production resilience, biomass conversion for livestock feed, and circular economy materials derived from fungal mycelium.

Research interests include the genetics of Agaricus bisporus, microbial interactions in food processing environments, and the development of novel fungal-based technologies. He has collaborated on studies such as screening somatic incompatibility in mushrooms and mitigating Listeria contamination in mushroom production chains.

Dr. Baars has co-supervised two PhD candidates: Tran H. (PhD LWV20.011) and Zheng C. (PhD ‘More Meat and Milk from Straw’). In 2019, he received the Ambassador of the Mushroom Industry Award, recognizing his contributions to industry collaboration and research dissemination.

He leads projects like ‘Development of a circular sustainable culturing process for natural leather-like materials based on fungal mycelium’ and ‘De waarde van schimmelbehandeling van laagwaardige biomassa’. His expertise bridges fundamental mycology with applied agricultural and industrial applications.