End of February 2016 Gisela Naujoks and Dr. Dietrich Ewald were retired after serving as scientists more than three decades in the field of forest tree breeding and forest genetics at the institute located in Waldsieversdorf (Brandenburg). The head of the Federal Research Institute for Forest Genetics, Dr. Bernd Degen, highlighted the continuous commitment of both employees to biotechnological research in forest trees. Gisela Naujoks joined in 1984 as a research assistant in the former Institute of Forest Tree Breeding in Waldsieversdorf. Here she developed in vitro culture techniques with a focus on deciduous trees such as birch, black locust, oak, beech, willow, alder, ash, and maple. Later investigations were added in the field of resistance and seed research, such as in the research project focused on the pelleting of aspen seed. After completing his doctorate, the biologist Dietrich Ewald began his career at the Institute for Forest Tree Breeding in Waldsieversdorf already in 1981. In the research area genomics, Ewald worked intensively on the tissue culture of deciduous trees and conifers, studying the role of endophytes in crops, and applying unconventional breeding methods such as the successful in vitro pollination of intersectional poplar species. In addition, he also examined risk issues in genetic transformation of forest trees. Long-standing cooperation with project partners, especially from China, highlighted the activities of Dietrich Ewald, which led – last not least - to major publications such as "Transgenic Forest Trees in China" (Ewald et al. 2006).