Ákos T Kovács is a Professor of Microbiome Ecology at Leiden University. His PhD (Szeged, Hungary) and post doc training (Groningen, The Netherlands) concentrated on bacterial physiology and genetics. He established his research group in 2012 at FSU Jena, Germany followed by a professor position at DTU, Denmark in 2017, and since 2023 in Leiden. He aims to understand how bacteria interact and evolve in complex communities and use this knowledge to engineer complex plant microbiomes. His research group examines how Bacilli interact during biofilm development with other microorganisms, including soil-derived bacteria and fungi, and colonize their natural niche, the plant rhizosphere. In these projects, they utilize systems microbiology, experimental evolution, chemical ecology, and synthetic microbial communities. Their ERC Synergy project, MicroClock, concentrates on circadian biology of microorganisms.

Centered on the critical  demand for cultivating healthy soils, my work focuses on mitigating soil biological constraints, regulating healthy rhizosphere microecology, and developing functional biofertilizers. I have achieved a series of innovative outcomes: 1) I revealed the competitive interaction mechanism as a key characteristic of healthy rhizosphere microecology that alleviates soil biological constraints; 2) I elucidated the mechanisms by which root exudates and Fe(III) drive rhizosphere microbial communities to form competitive interactions; 3) I innovatively developed a targeted rhizosphere microecological regulation strategy centered on enhancing competitive interactions among beneficial microorganisms. This strategy integrates the introduction of competitive microbial consortia, prebiotic matching enhancement, and phage-assisted suppression.