Professor Murray Grant is internationally recognised for his seminal contributions in the field of molecular plant pathology. He has made landmark discoveries on the molecular and hormonal mechanisms that underlie plant disease and host defence. His recent discovery of chloroplast immunity has provided new insight to how crop plants become susceptible to pathogens. This discovery opened up the new field of chloroplast immunity. A growing emphasis on translational research has provided new insights into ash dieback in UK, Phytophthora tree diseases in New Zealand and Europe and bacterial wilt disease of banana in Africa. He served as a member of the ZESPRI/KVH scientific oversight committee to assist the kiwifruit industry after the devastating incursion of Psa into New Zealand in 2010. He was an Honorary Researcher in the BioProtection Research Centre and delegate of two UK-NZ High Commission sponsored trade visits to New Zealand. These led to collaborations with a New Plymouth-based company that develops biologic formulations, and a major collaboration with Scion that stimulated the application of genomics to unravelling the origins of Phytophthora species and helped found the knowledge base that is now being applied to dieback of kauri.
