Professor German Spangenberg is Executive Director, BioSciences Research Division of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI). He is Director of the Plant Biotechnology Centre and Professor (Adjunct) with the Department of Botany at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. German received his PhD from the University of Heidelberg and Max-Planck-Institute of Cell Biology in Heidelberg, Germany.

He carried out postdoctoral research studies at the Max-Planck-Institute of Cell Biology and the Institute of Plant Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland.

In 1995 he moved to Australia to establish a plant biotechnology centre for DPI. Professor Spangenberg is Chief Scientist and Research Director of the Molecular Plant Breeding Cooperative Research Centre and Chairman of the Victorian AgriBiosciences Centre. He also leads the nodes for agrifood applications of the Victorian Microarray Technology Consortium, the Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium and the Victorian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics.

German is Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Phytogene Pty. Ltd., a biotechnology company of the Plant Biotechnology Centre, Managing Director (R&D) of AgGenomics Pty. Ltd., Australia’s first service company in agricultural genomics; and Chief Scientific Officer of Gramina Pty. Ltd.

German was the recipient of the Australian Thinker of Year 2006 Award 'in recognition of his world class innovations in pasture plant genomics and biotechnology and his leadership in bringing these innovations to the marketplace for the benefit of the wider community and temperate grassland agriculture worldwide’. In 2007, German was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering ‘for his inspiring and innovative research in agricultural biotechnology and as a world leader in pasture plant genomics and gene technology’.

german.spangenberg@dpi.vic.gov.au