The Robigalia Circle

In Rikus’s words

The Robigalia Circle is something more personal.

Over more than four decades in plant pathology and crop health, my path has crossed those of many remarkable people - teachers and mentors, colleagues and students, researchers and diagnosticians, collaborators and, very often, friends. They include plant pathologists, nematologists, breeders, molecular scientists and others whose work has intersected with the world of plant disease and crop health.

This is not a Hall of Fame, nor is inclusion a measure of scientific achievement, seniority or importance. Some members of the Circle are internationally recognised scientists; others may be known mainly within their particular field or to the people who worked alongside them. Some influenced the direction of my career, some shared a particular project or discovery with me, and some simply made the journey more interesting and enjoyable.

Just as importantly, absence from the Circle should never be interpreted as exclusion. This is a story being built gradually from more than forty years of memories, photographs, projects and friendships. Names will continue to be added as those memories resurface and as the story unfolds.

I will try, where possible, to follow the broad chronology of my career - from my student days, through the ARC, the rust years, PANNAR and international collaborations, to my present work with Robigalia CropCare. But careers and friendships seldom follow neat timelines. Someone I first met forty years ago may still be working alongside me today, while others who played an important role along the way are sadly no longer with us.

So The Robigalia Circle has no ranking, no fixed order and no final membership list. It includes those who have passed on and those who remain very much part of my life and work. It will grow as I remember, reconnect and continue to meet people along the way.

Perhaps that is the best way to understand the word Circle: it represents the people who, at different times and in different ways, have shared part of my journey.

And it is deliberately an open circle. New names and new stories will continue to be added. The Circle will only truly close when my own journey does.