Tamas Petrovic was born on October 21st 1969 in Becej, Vojvodina Province, Republic of Serbia. He started his studies at the Faculty of veterinary Medicine in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1989, and continued studying at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Belgrade in 1992. Tamas Petrovic graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, 1997, with a grade point average 9.03. Master thesis entitled “Investigating prevalence of infection caused by bovine virus diarrhoea (BVD) in breeding cattle” in the field of contagious diseases and zoonosis defended at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade in 2002. Doctoral dissertation entitled “Identification and genetic analysis of bovine viral diarrhoea virus isolates on the territory of Republic of Serbia” in the field of contagious diseases and zoonosis defended at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade in 2006.
Since 1997, he has been employed in the Laboratory of Virology, Scientific Veterinary Institute “Novi Sad”, Novi Sad. Research-scientist titles acquired: 1998 - Research Trainee; 2002 - Research Assistant; 2007 - Research Associate and 2011 - Senior Research Associate.
His scientific field is microbiology – virology, and the basic research interests encompass: Veterinary virology, food and environmental virology, vector-borne infections, vaccine laboratory and clinical trials as well as prevention, diagnostic, control and eradication of contagious diseases and zoonosis.
He participated / coordinated in 20 national, 3 bilateral and 8 international research projects and published more than 200 research and professional papers. Also, he actively participated in 25 international and 36 national symposia and conferences.
Present position: Senior Research Associate, Deputy Director for Research at the Scientific Veterinary Institute “Novi Sad”, Coordinator of the team for international cooperation, national, bilateral and international scientific projects, Deputy Head of the Department of Virology.
Marisa Arias was born in Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast, in Spain. PhD degree in Biochemistry, she earned the position of staff Researcher in 1987 at the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA). Since 2005 is the Technical Director at the Animal Health Research Center (CISA), belonging to INIA, and Technical Director of two relevant international reference laboratories: the EU Reference Laboratory and the FAO Reference Centre for African swine fever. She strongly believes in a philosophy of true teamwork, developing an active collaboration with Institutions and Organisms worldwide.
Throughout her career, Dr. Arias has been concerned in over sixty two National and EU funded R&D projects as well as in National and International Agreements for Scientific and Technical cooperation with private Companies and international Organisms. She has contributed with more than a hundred scientific publications, and she is co-author of various chapters in books with international prestige (e.g. Diseases of Swine and OIE Manual for Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals). She has got three national scientific awards and a merit for activity research. Her main expertise is related to R&D on emerging and transboundary animal viral diseases, mainly related with the development of new diagnostic tools and control strategies for a number of economically important animal viruses, including African swine fever, Classical swine fever, African Horse sickness, Bluetongue, Vesicular diseases, Aujeszkys disease, and PRRS. She has also worked actively in early warning system and various Spanish epidemiological surveillance and/or control and eradication programs of several OIE listed diseases, for which the INIA-CISA has been participating as National Reference Laboratory. She is participating in International Scientific Committees and working groups, and in the Community Veterinary Emergency Team of the EU. She has participated in over fifty international Courses concerning Animal Health organized in Europe, Africa, and Central and South America, often in the capacity of Coordinator and /or Director.
Norbert Nowotny studied biology at the University of Vienna. He did his PhD at the virology laboratory at the cancer research institute of the University of the Vienna Medical School. After working as a guest researcher at Stanford University in the United States for one year he became associate professor of virology at the Institute of Virology of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. From 2001 to 2006 he was also (Full) Professor of Virology at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. In 2012 he accepted a full professorship in Virology at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. And in 2013 professor Nowotny became Head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, at this University.
Professor Nowotny his research interests include all aspects of infectious diseases, especially viral diseases, of humans, farm, pet and zoo animals as well as wildlife. Medical and veterinary entomology; mosquito- and tick-borne viruses, Infectious diseases at the environment / animal / human interface, in particular emerging infections and zoonoses.
Professor Nowotny has (co) authored more than 200 scientific papers. He has been involved in several large EU research projects in the field of virology and he is a member of a number of scientific boards, international scientific committees and editorial boards of international scientific journals. He also has been involved in the organisation of a long list of scientific meetings and conferences in the field of virology and emerging diseases over the last 10 years.