Academic and Professional Background

• Research:

  Project: Rhizosphere interactions: gene expression, soil function and plant health

• Publications:
  1. Hamonts, K., Kuhn, T., Maesen, M., Bronders, J., Lookman, R., Kalka, H., Diels, L., Meckenstock, R.U., Springael, D. and Dejonghe, W. 2009. Factors determining the attenuation of chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons in eutrophic river sediment impacted by discharging polluted groundwater. Environ. Sci. Technol., 43:5270-5275.
  2. Kuhn T., Hamonts, K., Dijk, J., Kalka, H., Stichler, W., Springael, D., Dejonghe, W. and Meckenstock, R.U. 2009. Assessment of the intrinsic bioremediation capacity of an eutrophic river sediment polluted by chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons: a compound-specific isotope approach. Environ. Sci. Technol. 43:5263-5269.
  3. Rediers, H., Bonnecarrère, V., Rainey, P.B., Hamonts, K., Vanderleyden, J. and De Mot, R. 2003. Development and application of a dapB-based in vivo expression technology system to study colonization of rice by the endophytic nitrogen-fixing bacterium Pseudomonas stutzeri A15. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 69:6864-6874.
• Personal Resume: The TEC-funded Post-doctoral research Dr Kelly Hamonts undertakes aims at identifying the key plant-microbe rhizosphere interactions that influence nutrient availability and plant health and development under environmental and nutrient stress. Understanding plant-microbe interactions at the soil-root interface and identification of novel genes and signalling systems that mediate key microbial and plant processes will provide the basis for new strategies for disease control and sustainable production systems. Kelly gained an MSc in cell and gene biotechnology and a PhD at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). In her Masters’ thesis, in vivo expression technology was applied to identify Pseudomonas stutzeri A15 genes upregulated during rice root colonization. During her PhD, conducted at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research in Belgium, she studied the structure and pollutant-degrading activity of the microbial community of eutrophic river sediments impacted by discharging chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbon-polluted groundwater. This PhD study was conducted in the research project SEDBARCAH, funded by the European Union, in which river sediments were studied as potential natural biobarriers for chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons from discharging groundwater.