dr.ir. JC (Bob) Douma

Dr. Bob (J.C.) Douma is assistant professor at Centre for Crop Systems Analysis at Wageningen University. He studies the ecology of plants in the context of pests and diseases and uses advanced modelling tools to unravel the interaction between pests/pathogens and plants.

Bob Douma did his BSc in Groningen and Wageningen, and obtained his MSc at Wageningen University. He obtained his PhD at the VU University, Amsterdam in 2011, and moved to Wageningen University in 2012 to work on a project funded by the European Food and Safety Authority on models that predicts the entry of alien plant pests. In 2014 he obtained a NWO VENI grant to study the role of plant-plant communication through volatiles when subjected to herbivory through modelling and experimetation. He is assistant professor in the Center for Crop Systems Analysis since 2019 where he specializes in plant pest and disease epidemiology, pest and disease management in crops and ecological statistics. 

His current research focuses on plant-pest/pathogen interactions with particular emphasis on i) understanding the drivers of the introduction, establishment and spread of alien plant pests; ii) management of pests and diseases; For example, in one of his projects he tries to find out how crop mixtures can be used to suppress diseases, and which factors contribute to this diseases suppressive effect of crop mixtures. iii) the application and development of novel statistical techniques for ecology.