KAUST
Prof. Hirt’s research is focused on how plants can survive under abiotic or biotic stress conditions. At KAUST, Prof. Hirt searches for rhizosphere microbes of desert plants and investigates their potential and mechanisms to induce stress tolerance in plants. Although the major part of the projects is carried out in Arabidopsis, the generated knowledge is applied to crop plants with the aim to provide sustainable solutions for agriculture under extreme environmental conditions.