Professor Barend (Ben) Mans

Research of Professor Ben Mans focuses on tick biology and evolution, specifically adaptation to a blood-feeding lifestyle at the tick-host interface, tick taxonomy and systematics. Prof Mans received his Honours, Master’s and PhD degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Pretoria (UP) and completed Postdoctoral Fellowships at UP, the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), and the Laboratory for Malaria and Vector Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA). He has worked at the Agricultural Research Council – Onderstepoort Veterinary Research since 2008 where he has held a number of research positions, currently as Principal Researcher and Research Team Manager. He is also a Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa. He has published 110 peer-reviewed articles with over 6 800 citations. In addition he has authored and co-authored 17 book chapters and has served on the Editorial Boards of PLoS One, the International Journal of Acarology, and Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases.