Bertha Lucía Castro Caicedo yesterday presented her PhD prestige seminar in FABI, entitled Diseases of coffee with particular reference to those affecting stems and roots in Colombia. This morning Bertha Lucía went on to successfully defend her thesis in an oral exam, which included Dr Liliane Petrini in the examination panel, who is a mycologist from Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Lugano, Switzerland. Bertha Lucía did her PhD part-time under the leadership of Prof Mike Wingfield and Prof Jolanda Roux. She is a full-time staff member of the National Coffee Research Center (CENICAFE), Chinchiná, Caldas, Colombia, which explains why her PhD was conducted on diseases of coffee. She has already published two chapters of her PhD, listed below. We congratulate Bertha Lucia with achieving this major milestone in her research career!

Photo: Bertha Lucía Castro together with her supervisors Prof Jolanda Roux (left), Mike Wingfield (right) and her external examiner, Dr Liliane Petrini (second from right), after her thesis defense.

Castro BL, Carreño AJ, Galeano NF, Roux J, Wingfield MJ, Gaitán AL. (2013) Identification and genetic diversity of Rosellinia spp. associated with root rot of coffee in Colombia. Australasian Plant Pathology 42(5):515-523.

Castro Caicedo BL, Cortina Guerrero HA, Roux J, Wingfield MJ. (2013) New coffee (Coffea arabica) genotypes derived from Coffea canephora exhibiting high levels of resistance to leaf rust and Ceratocystis canker. Tropical Plant Pathology 38(6):485-494.