Dr Agata Motyka-Pomagruk, researcher of the Research and Implementation Laboratory of the intercollegiate biotechnology department of the University of Gdańsk and the Medical University of Gdańsk and the Department of Plant Protection and Biotechnology of the University of Gdańsk, was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for her doctoral dissertation “Genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of bacteria of the Dickeya solani species and development of innovative methods of plant protection against plant pathogens”.

The scientist was honored for her research allowing to learn and describe the full genetic pool of the Dickeya solani bacterium, the perpetrator of very dangerous potato diseases. The research results are particularly useful for agricultural practice and will be used in resistance breeding, which will reduce losses in potato production.