Dave Berger is a professor in the department of plant and soil sciences at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He leads the Molecular Plant-Pathogen Interactions research group at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI). As a plant biotechnologist, he conducts collaborative research on crop diseases of economic importance in Africa and globally. His research group interrogates grey leaf spot disease in maize as a model system to understand molecular mechanisms of plant host resistance and fungal pathogenicity. Genomics and data science approaches are employed to integrate and interpret field and laboratory data obtained from maize and the pathogen. His main research aim is to develop sustainable management strategies for long-term food security.

To date, he has mentored fifty-six PhD and master’s graduates and published 65 papers in Web of Science-listed journals.  He holds a rating of “internationally acclaimed researcher” from the National Research Foundation of South Africa, and in 2013, he was a USDA Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology fellow at the University of Arkansas in the USA. He was the recipient of the 2016 Special Award for Crop Science and Food Security from the National Science and Technology Forum and South 32.