Paul De Vos  Professor Em. Dr. Paul De Vos was a microbiologist at the University of Ghent and head of the department of Biochemistry and Microbiology until his retirement in 2015. De Vos was full professor at the University Ghent and has over 30 years experience in scientific research on bacterial taxonomy and fermentation. He is author/co-author of about 170 peer reviewed scientific papers. He was head of the department and director of the BCCM/LMG bacteria collection. The laboratory for Microbiology (LM-UGent) belongs to the Department of ‘Biochemistry and Microbiology‘ of the Faculty of Sciences at the University Ghent. The laboratory is well known for its expertise in bacterial taxonomy of a wide variety of bacteria amongst which also a vast number of plant-related/plant pathogenic bacteria. In close synergy with the LM-UGent, the BCCM/LMG bacteria collection operates as an ISO 9001:2000 certificated Biological Resource Centre with facilities for preservation and distribution of bacterial cultures. The BCCM/LMG bacteria collection currently holds >23.000 strains, representing more than 500 genera and 3.500 species, subspecies or pathovars with a quite complete coverage of plant pathogenic bacteria. A published credit of de Vos is "Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, Volume 3: The Firmicutes" (Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology 2nd Edition). He is author of over 170 scientific papers. The bacterial genus "Devosia" is named after him in honor for his basic contribution to the taxonomy of pseudomonads.