Sebastian Michel

Dr. Sebastian Michel is a researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology in Plant Production, part of the Department of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). His work focuses on applying genomic and phenomic selection to improve disease resistance and climate adaptability in wheat species.

Research interests include:

• Genomic selection for complex traits
• Plant disease resistance (Fusarium, Septoria, common bunt)
• Climate-resilient crop breeding
• Wheat genomics and QTL mapping

Scientific contributions span numerous publications on Fusarium resistance mechanisms, deoxynivalenol detoxification, and genomic prediction models. He has supervised multiple MSc theses on transgenerational defense induction, allele prediction, and stripe rust resistance.

Projects include EU-funded initiatives for:

• Climate Resilient Orphan Crops
• PhenoMix: Deep Learning in Wheat Breeding
• Sustainable Resistance Breeding in Ethiopia/Kenya/Zimbabwe

Community engagement features keynote lectures on modern breeding methods and peer-review roles for journals like Frontiers in Plant Science and Theoretical and Applied Genetics.