%0 Journal Article
%T Robert A. Samson ¨C CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre
%J Archive of "Persoonia : Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi".
%D 2016
%X The present volume of Persoonia is dedicated to Robert A. Samson ¡®Rob¡¯ on the occasion of his 70th birthday (23 March 2016). Rob Samson was appointed at the CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre by Von Arx (1970), and graduated at Utrecht University (1974) on the topic ¡®Paecilomyces and some allied hyphomycetes¡¯. During a postdoc in Gary Cole¡¯s laboratory in Texas, Cole and Samson (1979) made a major contribution towards our understanding of conidiogenesis, and published the book Patterns of Development in Conidial Fungi. He also continued the work of Melie Stolk on the industrially important genera Penicillium and Aspergillus, which resulted in many key publications and highly influential symposium books. For many years he has been supported in these studies by Jens C. Frisvad (from Lyngby, Denmark) and E.S. (Ellen) Hoekstra, and in later years by Jan Dijksterhuis and Jos Houbraken. After Von Arx, Rob Samson also took over the editorial role of the institute¡¯s flagship journal, Studies in Mycology, as well as the two book series, the CBS Biodiversity Series, and the CBS Laboratory Manual Series. Following a reorganization of CBS in 2005, he became head of the Applied and Industrial Mycology Programme. In 2002 he was appointed as adjunct professor at the Kasetsart University in Bangkok (Thailand), and in 2009 at the Portuguese Open University in Lisbon (Portugal). Throughout his career Rob Samson has received many honours, including: recipient of the USFCC/J. Roger Porter award by the American Society of Microbiology, and election to Honorary Memberships in the Hungarian Society for Microbiology and the Mycological Society of America, an honorary degree from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and the de Bary Medal from the International Mycological Association. In addition to his numerous research papers and books, some of his greatest contributions include the establishment of a polyphasic approach to systematics of Aspergillus and Penicillium, and his CBS Laboratory Manual on Food and Indoor Fungi. Since 2005 Rob Samson has also served as Secretary General of the International Union of Microbiological Societies and is also involved as chair or member of several international mycological commissions. He officially retired from the CBS in 2011, but continued in a supervisory capacity until February 2016, when Jos Houbraken replaced him as junior group leader in the Applied and Industrial Mycology group. Rob Samson also established the ¡®Service Unit¡¯ at CBS, which remains responsible for coordinating the fungal identifications, services (book
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4988378/