Academic Career

Since 2021	Speaker of the Division "Biology and Biotechnology of Fungi" of the VAAM (https://vaam.de/die-vaam/fachgruppen/biologie-und-biotechnologie-der-pilze/)
Since 2020	Associate Professor (W3) for “Fungal Biotechnology in Wood Science” at the Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan
2014 - 2020	Assistant Professor (W2, TT) for “Wood Bioprocesses” at the Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan
2010 - 2014	Postdoctoral Scholar at the Energy Biosciences Institute (UC Berkeley, CA, USA) (Prof. Chris Somerville)
2009	Doctoral dissertation at LMU München, Chair of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants (Prof. Soll) Thesis: “Characterization of two components of the chloroplastic Tic complex”
2003	Graduation in Biology (Diploma) from the TU Braunschweig, thesis work at UC San Diego (CA, USA) (Prof. Crawford) Title: “Analysis of the transcriptional regulation of the dual-affinity nitrate transporter gene AtNRT1.1 (CHL1) from Arabidopsis thaliana“

Research Areas

• Gene regulation and signaling pathways for polysaccharide degradation in filamentous fungi
• Biochemical analysis of the involved enzymes and sugar transporters
• Post-translational modifications and metabolic adaptations 
• Strain engineering for the biotechnological utilization of filamentous fungi in circular economy applications from renewable biomass

Publications (selected)

Meyer V, Basenko EY, Benz JP, et al. (2020) Growing a circular economy with fungal biotechnology: a white paper. Fungal Biology and Biotechnology, 7, 5. doi: 10.1186/s40694-020-00095-z (pdf)

Benz JP, Chen S, Dang S, Dieter M, Labelle ER, Liu G, Hou L, Mosandl RM, Pretzsch H, Pukall K, Richter K, Ridder R, Sun S, Song X, Wang Y, Xian H, Yan L, Yuan J, Zhang S, Fischer A (2020) Multifunctionality of Forests: A White Paper on Challenges and Opportunities in China and Germany. Forests, 11(3):266. doi: 10.3390/f11030266

You can find an up-to-date list with all publications here.

Other Activities

• Elected member of the TUM School of Life Sciences School Council (2020 – to date).

• Editor: The Mycota – Volume II – Genetics and Biotechnology, 3rd edition (Springer; link)

• Associate Editor: Frontiers in Fungal Biology – Fungal Physiology and Metabolism (link)

• Elected Member in the Study Program Division Council “Forest Science and Resource Management”

• Co-initiator und co-coordinator of the public talk series TUM@Freising (link)

• Co-coordinator of university cooperation between TUM  and the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University (NWAFU), Yangling, China