WCPP 2019 session chair Jim Westwood has been studying parasitic plants for 25 years. He has worked primarily with Orobanche, Phelipanche and Cuscuta, and is interested in host-parasite interactions, especially with respect to exchange of macromolecules, host defense responses, and parasite genomics. He is among the founding members of IPPS and is a past president of the society.  Jim has a B.A. from Concordia College (Moorhead, MN), M.S. from the University of Minnesota and Ph.D. from Purdue University. He is currently a Professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences at Virginia Tech.