Guatemala-trained medical doctor with a masters and a doctoral degree in nutrition from UCDavis. Before joining HarvestPlus as head of the nutrition unit in 2008, he worked for 10 years at the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (1987-1999) where he pursued his research interests in perinatal public health focusing on prevention of low birth weight, and iodine and iron deficiency control and prevention. At INCAP he provided technical assistance in maternal and child nutrition and micronutrient malnutrition assessment and control to member countries. As chief scientific adviser of the Micronutrient Initiative (1999-2008) he led the iron and zinc research agendas, expanded micronutrient powders into several Latin American countries, and temporarily managed the vitamin A supplements procurement project. Since 2008 he has been coordinating the HarvestPlus nutrition research program, which encompasses dietary intake and nutritional status surveys, as well as food science and epidemiologic research required to assess the nutritional merits of biofortification as an efficacious intervention to prevent micronutrient deficiency in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Dr. Karen Chad began her appointment as Vice-President Research on January 1, 2010. She is also a professor in the College of Kinesiology.

David Dzisiak is the Commercial Leader for Grains & Oils at Dow AgroSciences.  He has responsibility for leading the canola, sunflower and grains food traits commercial strategy for the company. 

David grew up on a family grain farm near Dauphin Manitoba. He attended the University of Manitoba and graduated in 1981 from the faculty of agriculture with a degree in plant science and economics.

David has been involved in development of the plant genetics and biotechnology strategy for Dow AgroSciences since the mid-90’s. As part of that, he led the creation of the Dow AgroSciences healthy oils portfolio, including the Nexera canola program. Today he sits on the board of the Canola Council of Canada and Cereals Canada. David has worked with Dow AgroSciences for 32 years.

Dr. Frodyma represents Novozymes, the world’s leading producer of industrial microorganisms and enzymes.  With over 20 years’ experience in both academic and commercial positions, Dr. Frodyma is a technical research leader for the Novozymes BioAg groups based in North America. He received his B.S. in Marine Molecular Biology from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1993, and then obtained a PhD in Bacterial Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998 working on thiamin and purine metabolic crosstalk in Salmonella enterica. Dr. Frodyma then spent three years doing a post-doc at the Pennsylvania State University working on marine psychrophiles, and characterizing cold-active enzymes from these organisms.  He has spent the last 13 years working for Novozymes BioAg, who manufactures and markets products within three technology platforms (biocontrol, biofertility, and bioyield enhancement) that help farmers grow better crops more efficiently.  A large part of his job is to collaborate and direct the course of major research projects with industrial and academic partners though mentoring of technical project leads. Recently this has also involved managing the Monsanto-Novozymes BioAg Alliance in regards to joint research projects between the two companies. As a senior manager within BioAg, his projects are mostly global with dedicated partners in Agriculture. These technical projects are at both the discovery and developmental levels.

Juan Gonzalez-Valero is Head Public Policy and Sustainability at Syngenta. He is integrating sustainability aspects into core business practice. He has shaped the company’s ‘Good Growth Plan’ and oversees its implementation and company performance against it.
He is lecturer in leadership skills at the University of St.-Gallen.
Prior to his current position, he served as Head of Ecological Risk Assessment, Head of Sustainable Use and Stewardship, and Head of Corporate Responsibility within Syngenta. Before joining Syngenta, he was Head Ecotoxicology at Novartis.
He served on the board of a number of non-for-profit organizations, among them the Fair Labor Association and the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Dr. Gonzalez-Valero earned his PH.D in Biology, from the University of Hamburg with specialization in Ecology and Environmental Toxicology.

Neal Gutterson, Ph.D., is vice president, Research and Development (R&D) and is a member of the DuPont Pioneer Leadership Team. In this capacity, Neal leads all R&D and product development functions to create innovative agricultural products, services and integrated solutions which combine Pioneer’s industry-leading germplasm, breeding systems, biotechnology-derived solutions, and data analytics.

Neal built his career through a series of progressively more senior research and development roles at biotechnology start-up companies, including Advanced Genetic Sciences and DNA Plant Technology Corporation. In 2002, he joined Mendel Biotechnology as vice president, Research & Development. Neal served as president, chief executive officer and board member of Mendel Biotechnology prior to joining DuPont Pioneer in 2014.

Neal has an extensive history of professional memberships, and he currently sits on the CIMMYT Board of Trustees where he is program committee chair. He is also widely published in scientific journals and is a regular speaker at industry conferences.

Neal holds a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Yale University and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He has also attended the Stanford Business School Emerging Companies Executive Program. Neal is named inventor on more than 30 patents and pending patent applications.

Greg Giokas has just returned from Bangalore, India where he was the Canadian Consul General.

Greg has over 30 years’ experience in diplomacy, trade and policy development with emphasis on agriculture policies in Canada and abroad. He studied in Lausanne, Berlin, Quebec City and Ottawa. Greg joined Agriculture Canada in 1990 and led the promotion of Canadian food exports abroad.  From 1999-2003 as Counsellor for Food, Resources and Consumer products at the Canadian Embassy, Tokyo, he led the team for market access and trade promotion. As Director of Trade Policy at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada he oversaw market access and WTO issues for Asia and the EU until he joined Foreign Affairs in 2007, as Director of Trade Commissioner Support, where he led the development of Canada’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy.  Subsequently Director for South Asia, Director General for South/South-East Asia, he then served as Canada’s High Commissioner to Islamabad, Pakistan 2012-14.  He conceived and led the development of a policy for Food Security and Regional Stability in South Asia, highlighting the critical role of trade for food security and consulted policy frameworks for successful implementation of technological advances in the agriculture sector, the topic of his presentation.

Professor Sarah Gurr, Chair in Food Security, University of Exeter
Professor Sarah Gurr was recently appointed to the Chair in Food Security, a post created by the University of Exeter in association with BBSRC and Rothamsted Research. This new position nests within the Food Security and Research Land Alliance between the Universities of Exeter, Bristol, Bath and Cardiff and with Rothamsted.

Professor Gurr was previously Professor of Molecular Plant Pathology at Oxford and formerly President of The British Society of Plant Pathology. She sits on BBSRC Council. She was educated at Imperial College London, where she was awarded the Huxley medal for excellence. She held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship prior to her appointment at Oxford and then, at Oxford, she held a Royal Society Senior Research and a NESTA Fellowship.

Professor Gurr’s interests are in crop diseases, with particular emphasis on fungal infestations and their global movement and control. She is also interested in fungal biotechnology. She has authored or co-authored over 120 publications, including recent papers in Nature, Nature Climate Change, Science and the recent Government Foresight report on “Biological Hazards” (with Angela McLean, Oxford). In conjunction with scientists at Exeter, led by Professor Tim Lenton, she recently contributed to a “Climate Change” Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).

Sigrid Heuer is working at the ACPFG since 2013 and is Associate Professor of the University of Adelaide. She is leading a program on nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) and is ACPFG’s science coordinator, after she had been interim CEO in 2014. Sigrid is also director of an industrial transformation research hub which, in collaboration with Australian wheat breeding companies, aims at the development of heat and drought tolerant wheat, improvement of NUE, and development of field-based phenotyping technologies.

Before joining ACPFG, Sigrid has worked at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines for nearly ten years. At IRRI, she has worked on the SUB1A submergence-tolerance gene and Sub1 molecular markers. In addition to projects on gene discovery and heat-tolerance, her main focus was on the cloning of the PSTOL1 protein kinase gene, which confers tolerance of phosphorus deficiency by enhancing root growth.

Prior to this, Sigrid has spent three years as a DAAD-funded post doctoral fellow at the Africa Rice Centre in Senegal working on “New Rice for Africa” (NERICAs). Sigrid has an MSc in Plant Physiology and received her PhD in Plant Molecular Biology in 2000 for cloning the first transcription factor genes from reproductive cells in maize.

Pierre Herben, graduated as Bio-engineer (1987) at UCL Belgium. He worked for 25 years in the petrochemical industry (Shell, Montell, LyondellBasell Industries) in various positions as researcher, field engineer, Marketing Mgr, head of Innovation and New Business, global VP R&D at Lyondell Basell Industries. Since 5 years, He now leads Yara’s Innovation and R&D expert organisation, leading developments in the area of Technologies, environmental and crop nutrition solutions. Yara, with roots going back more than 100 years, remains the world’s largest supplier of plant nutrients. With operations in more than 50 countries and sales to about 150 countries, it has a major share of the global mineral fertilizer market. The company has production sites in 16 countries and holds strong positions in niche markets as well, from emissions reduction products to dry ice. Yara is also the largest trader of ammonia in the world. From its corporate headquarters in Oslo, Norway, Yara runs worldwide production and support operations that employ 12,883 people (number at year-end 2015). The Norwegian State is the company’s largest single shareholder.

Dr TJ Higgins is an Honorary Fellow at CSIRO Agriculture. His major research focus is the application of gene technology for plant improvement. He is particularly interested in protecting food legumes from insect pests and enhancing the nutritional quality of plant products for feed and food uses. Most of his current work is aimed at increasing food security in Africa and India.

Born in Ireland, TJ’s first degrees were in agricultural science from the National University of Ireland. He gained his PhD from the University of California, Davis, USA and travelled to Australia as a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Australian National University. Shortly after, he joined CSIRO Plant Industry, from which he recently retired as a Chief Research Scientist and Deputy Chief.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

Chantal is a research scientist with the Soils and Crops Research and Development Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Quebec.  Her research focuses on the interaction of plant and soil microbial diversity in the agroecosystem.  Her research objective is the sustainable intensification of agriculture though soil biology improvement for efficient use of nutrients by crops.  She has a Ph.D. from McGill University.  She was a research scientist for the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, taught Soil Science at McGill University before joining the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre of AAFC in 2003.

Prof. Zeyaur Khan, an award winning agricultural scientist of Indian nationality,  has been working  at  the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Kenya for more than 22 years. He is recognized worldwide for his significant contribution to African society by enhancing food security and environmental sustainability through scientific research into the complex mechanisms that govern the ecology of plant–insect interactions and plant signalling in smallholder cereal–livestock production systems, leading to development of ‘push–pull’, an ecological, pro-poor agricultural innovation, and its adaptation to climate change to ensure its long term sustainability; and for leading a research-based extension system for wide-scale dissemination of  push–pull.

Push–pull, which increases productivity with low external inputs, and without damaging environment, is just the kind of technology necessary to support the ‘green revolution’ that Africa needs. His efforts have substantially improved food security and incomes of as many as 1 million people living in more than 125,000 smallholder farm families in eastern Africa.   His current goal is to reach one million households with push–pull by 2020. He is a winner of 2015 Louis Malassis Prize for Outstanding Career in Agriculture.

Watch this film is about the research and development of the climate-adapted push-pull technology (www.push-pull.net) developed by icipe, and funded by the European Union.

Leon V. Kochian is Director of the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health on the Cornell University campus. He also is an Adjunct Professor in the Plant Biology Section and also the Soil and Crop Science Section at Cornell University, as well as an Adjunct Scientist at Boyce Thompson Institute He received his Bachelor’s degree in Botany at the University of California at Berkeley in 1978, and his Ph.D. in Plant Physiology at the University of California at Davis in 1984. In 1985 he took a position as a Plant Physiologist with USDA-ARS at the U. S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory on the Cornell campus. Dr. Kochian became Director of the U.S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory in 1997, and Director of the newly established USDA-ARS Robert Holley Center on the Cornell campus in 2007.

Dr. Kochian’s research deals with the molecular biology, physiology and genetics of mineral ion transport processes as they relate to mineral nutrient acquisition, plant response to abiotic environmental stresses, and the role of root architecture in nutrient acquisition efficiency. This involves the interdisciplinary application of research approaches from the fields of molecular biology, genetics, physiology, membrane biophysics and computer science to understand fundamental mechanisms and genes underlying mineral nutrient acquisition, tolerance to mineral deficiencies and mineral excess (toxic metals) in the soil, and the role of root system architecture in efficient acquisition of water and mineral nutrients. Dr. Kochian is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as well as an American Society of Plant Biologists Fellow, and is a member of the ARS Hall of Fame. Dr. Kochian was also recently named to Thomson Reuter’s list of 2015’s “Most Influential Scientific Minds”, a citation analysis identifying the scientists who have made the most significant global impact within their respective field of study over the past 11 years.

As CEO, Jerome Konecsni oversees and provides leadership for operations and programs within Innovation Saskatchewan and guides strategy, vision and direction for the agency’s success.

Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science; Director, Carbon Management and Sequestration Center; President Elect, International Union of Soil Sciences; Adjunct Professor, University of Iceland. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Rattan Lal, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, The Ohio State University. His current research focus is on climate-resilient agriculture, soil carbon sequestration, sustainable intensification, enhancing use efficiency of agroecosystems, and sustainable management of soil resources of the tropics. He received honorary degrees of Doctor of Science from Punjab Agricultural University (2001), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas (2005), Alecu Russo Balti State University, Moldova (2010), and Technical University of Dresden Germany (2015) and cited in Thomas Reuters 2014 and 2015 list of World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. He was president of the World Association of the Soil and Water Conservation (1987-1990), the International Soil Tillage Research Organization (1988-91), the Soil Science Society of America (2005-2007), and is President Elect of the International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna, Austria (2014-). Prof. Lal was a lead author of IPCC (1998-2000), and was awarded Nobel Peace Prize Certificate by IPCC in 2007, and Global Dry land Champion of the UNCCD, Bonn, Germany in 2013. He has mentored 114 graduate students and 54 postdoctoral researchers, and hosted 147 visiting scholars from around the world. He has authored/co-authored 783 refereed journal articles and 436 book chapters, has written 19 and edited/co-edited 63 books.

Mark is the author of three previous books. High Tide: News from a Warming World was published in 2004, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet in 2007. The God Species was published in 2011. Six Degrees was made into an hour-long documentary by NatGeo and broadcast worldwide in 2008, with voiceover by Alec Baldwin.

As a pro-science campaigner and commentor he is a frequent speaker worldwide, particularly in the US and Canada. He is on the board of the UK campaign group Sense About Science, and (though still resident in Oxford, UK) is currently visiting fellow at the Cornell Alliance for Science, based at Cornell University and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has written extensively in world media on the GMO issue as well as climate change and science in society.

Peter chaired a Strategic Study of Biotechnology Research in the CGIAR and also chaired an expert panel for the Australian Government on Australia and Food Security in a Changing World.  He currently chairs the Steering Committee for the Dryland Cereals Research Program of the CGIAR and the Science Board of the International Wheat Initiative.  He also serves on the scientific advisory boards for several research organisations in Europe and North America.  Until 2014 he was the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and he previously helped develop and manage several research programs in Australia aimed at enhancing the development and delivery of molecular technologies for crop improvement.  He served from 1994-2007 on the Australian gene technology regulatory committees and is an honorary fellow of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand providing advice on the impact of new breeding technologies on food safety.

Peter’s research has focused on plant molecular biology and the science of plant breeding.  He has supervised 60 PhD students and published over 300 research articles.

Steve Long FRS is Gutgesell Endowed University of Illinois Professor of Crop Sciences and also Professor of Crop Sciences at the University of Lancaster, UK.    His photosynthesis research spans from molecular and in silico design to field analysis of performance.  He has identified the most productive terrestrial plants so far known from the wild and the attributes that set them apart.  He was listed by ISI as one of the Most Highly Cited Authors of 2015 and by Reuters as one of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds of 2015”.  He has recently gained the Marsh Award for Climate Change Research from the British Ecological Society, the Kettering Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists, the Innovation Award of the International Society for Photosynthesis Research; and the Newton-Abrahams Visiting Professorship of Oxford University, UK.  He is Founding and Chief Editor of “Global Change Biology”.    He currently Directs the $25M Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation international project on Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE).  He has given invited presentations on bioenergy, climate change impacts and food security to the President at the White House, to the Vatican and to Bill Gates.  He serves in advisory roles on key agricultural committees in the US and EU.

Susan McCouch is the Barbara McClintock Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics in the School of Integrated Plant Sciences at Cornell University.  She received her PhD from Cornell in 1990 and spent 5 years with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines before joining the Cornell faculty in 1995. She is well known for her pioneering studies on molecular mapping in rice and the development of genomics-based platforms to explore the extent, distribution and phenotypic consequences of genetic variation. Researchers throughout the world utilize the molecular markers, genotyping platforms, analysis protocols and germplasm resources developed in her lab for genetics research and breeding applications. She has trained scores of young scientists who contribute to rice research internationally and has a prolific publication record. She is the recipient of numerous teaching and faculty awards, is an elected fellow of AAAS, and has served as scientific advisor on the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP), the NSF Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering (AC-ISE), and as Chair of the AAAS Section on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

He is one of the faces of Canada, radiating intelligence and trustworthiness.

His mind is as sharp as the Rockies.

National treasurers need no introduction, and so it is with Rex Murphy, writer, broadcaster and professional thinker.

He knows what makes Canadians tick, and what drives our political and social affairs. He makes us important, reminds us we have culture beyond hockey. His thought-provoking, sometimes stinging commentary and original insights are delivered through a vocabulary to make Webster’s consider updating.

Canadian’s are treated to weekly commentary from Rex on CBC’s The National along with his Saturday column in the National Post. He’s also acted as an editorial contributor to CBC Radio’s Definitely Not the Opera.

For over 20 years he acted as the host and moderator of CBC Radio’s Cross Country Checkup. The show brought over 1 million listeners and at times 15,000 callers wanting to join in discussions.

He calls himself a Newfoundlander biting at the heels of Canadian conservatism.

Murphy, a Rhodes Scholar, was born and raised in St. John’s, Nfld., where he graduated from Memorial University and, in 1968 went to Oxford University, along with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Rex ran twice in provincial elections and lost both times. Maybe he was too honest?

Certainly, as a speaker, he’s quality. He’s profound. Oh, and entertainer Murphy can spin a funny yarn with a touch of his delicious “Rex appeal.”

Mark Matlock joined Archer Daniels Midland Company in 1980, and he currently serves as senior vice president, Research. In this role, he directs food ingredient research for the company.
Prior to his current appointment, Mark Matlock served as an Analytical Chemist, Manager-Process Development, Laboratory Manager-ADM BioProducts and Director-Food Applications.
Mark Matlock is author or co-author of nine U.S. patents, two of which relate to an analytical instrument (OSI) that measures the oxidative stability of vegetable oils. He has conducted research that has led to new soy protein isolates for ADM. He has managed research efforts that lead the introduction of trans free fats for margarines and shortening via a novel enzymatic rearrangement technology. In addition, Mark Matlock was
elected president of the American Oil Chemists’ Society for 2003-2004 and in 2007 was honored as an AOCS Fellow.
Mark Matlock holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Millikin University and a Master’s of Science degree in polymer chemistry from the University of Akron.

Jurandir Magalhaes is a research scientist working since 2002 for the Maize and Sorghum Unit of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – EMBRAPA, a government agency linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply. He is also a Faculty member in the Genetics Department of the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Dr. Magalhaes received his Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy in 1990 and a Master´s degree in Soil Science and Plant Nutrition (1995), both at the Federal University of Viçosa in the State of Minas Gerais.  In 2002, he received his PhD degree in Field Crop Science with concentration in Plant Genetics and Plant Breeding at Cornell University (US). During 2015, Jurandir Magalhaes was a Visiting Scientist at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (US) working on the epigenomics of root system architecture and abiotic stress tolerance in crops.

Jurandir´s research program is focused on the molecular and quantitative genetics of abiotic stress tolerance primarily in sorghum and maize and includes comparative genomics with other staple food crop species. More specifically, his research addresses the role of root biology in crop adaptation to soil-based stresses including drought, insufficient mineral nutrients, and toxic metals, which are common constraints to agriculture in tropical areas of the developing world. Throughout his program, emphasis has been given on translational genomics approaches, which can be illustrated by the cloning of SbMATE, a plasma membrane transporter that confers tolerance to aluminum toxicity in sorghum leading to a grain yield increase on acid soils of approximately 0.6 ton ha^-1.

Peter McCourt

Professor, Canada Research Chair in Plant Molecular Biology

Peter McCourt is a full professor in the Cell & Systems Biology at the University of Toronto.

Over the past 20 years, Peter’s research program has focused on how plant hormones or growth regulators direct growth and development. His major focus is on the hormone abscisic acid (ABA), which modulates plant growth during abiotic stresses such as drought. To this end, Peter’s group contributed to the identification of the ABA receptor, which was chosen as one of the top ten scientific breakthroughs of 2009 by the journal Science. He continues to study ABA by expanding core ABA signaling from a pathway to a network using the tools of systems biology. Recently his group is working on understanding a second hormone, strigolactone, which is an important chemical cue for seed germination in the parasitic plant Striga. This work was recently published in two articles in Science.

Peter held an Industrial Research Chair from 2000-2010 and presently holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Plant Molecular Biology. Peter’s contributions to the field of plant hormones have been acknowledged with the International Plant Growth Substances Association 2013 Silver medal and his applications to biotechnology with the 2012 Inventors of the Year award by the University of Toronto.

A trained economist and Sinologist, Stephen McGurk has spent more than three decades studying Asia’s rural development.

Prior to being Vice-President, McGurk was the Director of IDRC’s Agriculture and Environment program. This program is dedicated to supporting research that seeks to increase agricultural productivity as well as food and water security while ensuring environmental sustainability. Previously, he served as IDRC Regional Director in IDRC’s South Asia and China Office in Delhi and in the Southeast and East Asia office in Singapore. McGurk has worked with the Ford Foundation in Beijing, where he was responsible for its economic security program in China. He has taught at the University of California and worked with the World Bank on a critical generation of investments in China’s rural development.

McGurk has a PhD from Stanford University’s Food Research Institute.

Teresa Mosquera is a Full Professor at the National University of Colombia. She is Biologist and carried out postgraduate studies in genetics and plant breeding. She obtained her PhD title at the National University of Colombia in collaboration with Max Planck Institute in Germany. She has been invited as a scientist guest to Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research and as Invited professor at University of Bonn. Her research area is in plant genetics and breeding and she has published especially in the potato genetics area, in which has contributed to understand of genetic control of complex traits. Currently, her interest is to develop research to link agriculture with nutrition working with vulnerable communities in Colombia.

Dion McBay leads Monsanto Company’s Global Sustainable Development team, which brings innovative agriculture technologies to help farmers around the world increase their crop yields and profitability while reducing their impact on the environment. McBay and his team are also responsible for Monsanto’s corporate sustainability strategy and oversee the company’s climate change initiatives, carbon neutral farming practices, soil health and water quality, and renewable fuels programs.

McBay first became interested in agriculture and biotechnology while growing up on his family’s farm in Alabama. He began his career with Monsanto more than 21 years ago and has held global positions in technology development, commercial sales operations and marketing leadership. As an agriculture advocate, McBay is also passionate about preserving honey bee health and encouraging the Monarch butterfly repopulation to help ensure access to a balanced plate for future generations.

McBay holds an MBA from Baylor University in Waco, TX and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, both with honors.

John Pickett was appointed Head of the Insecticides and Fungicides Department (later the Department of Biological Chemistry) in 1984 and, concurrently in 2007, Scientific Director of the Rothamsted Centre for Sustainable Pest and Disease Management. In 2010, he relinquished these positions on being awarded the first Michael Elliott Distinguished Research Fellowship at Rothamsted. He continues to contribute to chemical ecology research and is still very much involved with such activities in the UK and around the world and has over 500 publications, and patents.

John’s scientific work has been acknowledged with the 1995 Rank Prize for Nutrition and Crop Husbandry, election to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1996, appointment to CBE for services to Biological Chemistry in 2004, and the Wolf Foundation Prize in Agriculture in 2008, among many other international measures of esteem.  In June 2014 he became President of the Royal Entomological Society and in April 2014 he was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences (Foreign Associate).

Following a Masters degree in Russian and French from Cambridge University, my entire career since 1988 has been spent in digital publishing, initially with Reuters Ltd and, since 1991, with CABI.  In 2015 I became CABI’s first Chief Information Officer, following a merger between the global Publishing and IT divisions to form the CABI Knowledge Business, and am now responsible for ensuring that all of CABI’s activities are supported by world-class information resources and technology platforms.  This includes managing the academic publishing business and overseeing the development of the Plantwise Knowledge Bank to support CABI’s flagship plant health programme.  I have served on the Board of the two major trade associations representing scholarly and professional publishers, and was recently awarded “Best in Class” in the Not-for-Profit and Public Sector category of the UK Data 50 Awards.  I am currently leading CABI’s drive to support a data revolution in agriculture, including our participation in the G8-sponsored Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative.

Peter Phillips is an international political economist, Professor of Public Policy and Graduate Chair at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (University of Saskatchewan), and an associate member in the departments of Economics (Arts College) and Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics (Agriculture College) at the University of Saskatchewan. He has served as Professor-at-Large at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Western Australia. His research concentrates on issues related to governing transformative innovation. He has published over 70 articles, books and reports on biotechnology regulation and policy, technological change, innovation systems, intellectual property management, supply chain management and trade policy. His research has applications in the circumpolar area, as many of the innovation systems and innovative products are focused on centres in northern, or the northern periphery. He is currently a principal investigator or lead on more than five national or international research projects with a combined budget of more than C$10 million. His latest book, Innovation in Agri-food Research Systems: Theory and Case Studies, was published by CABI in 2012.

Dr Anne Roulin is responsible for Nutrition, Health & Wellness (NHW) and Sustainability within R&D and is based in Nestlé’s global headquarters in Switzerland reporting to the CTO. In this role she works across Nestlé’s R&D organisation in over 30 centres around the world, to embed NHW and sustainability at the earliest phase of the product development cycle. The approach is holistic, encompassing the entire value chain from agriculture through the choice of ingredients, packaging, processing and distribution including the important issue of food waste. The overall objective is to develop products that are tastier, healthier and with a lower environmental impact.

Previously she was Global Head of Packaging for Nestlé and prior to Nestlé she founded and built up a company specialised in Package Development, after spending 10 years with Tetra Pak in Switzerland, the USA & Italy.

During the first part of her career she built up a research team in the area of Materials at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne. She has a bachelors degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Materials Science.

Terry is President of IPNI, a not-for-profit, fertilizer industry supported, scientific organization dedicated to the responsible management of plant nutrition. With agronomic programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America, IPNI has initiatives addressing the world’s growing need for food, fuel, fiber, and feed. Dr. Roberts was previously President of the Potash & Phosphate Institute (PPI), the predecessor to IPNI. A native of Alberta, Canada, he grew up in a family-owned and operated retail fertilizer business. Terry received a B.S.A. in Crop Science (1981) from the University of Saskatchewan and a Ph.D. in Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition (1985) from the same institution. He is a Certified Crop Adviser. In 2001 he was recognized as a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and received ASA’s Agronomic Service Award in 2013.

Manish N. Raizada received his B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario (Genetics) and Ph.D. from Stanford University (Plant Molecular Genetics). He held fellowship positions at The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Mexico City (Cereal Genomics) and at Caltech (Chemical Engineering). He is currently an Associate Professor and the International Relations Officer in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, Canada.

The focus of the Raizada Lab is to develop low cost technologies that reduce the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides to grow corn and other crops, replacing them with more natural, biological resources, with a focus on North America, SubSaharan Africa and South Asia. The lack of fertilizers limits crop production especially in developing nations, but their high cost can also reduce farmer incomes, and contribute to climate change.

Dr. Raizada is Founder of SAKGlobal (SAKs, Sustainable Agriculture Kits), an effort to bring $1 technologies to the world’s 1 billion subsistence farmers who earn $1/day. SAK kits are based on the principles of sustainable, ecological agriculture.

Research from the Lab has been featured in national and international media, including Canada’s premier national TV newscast (CBC The National), Canada’s leading newspaper (The Toronto Star), and Canada’s leading science radio program, CBC Radio Quirks and Quarks (our emphasis on low cost technologies was featured in an episode that received the United Nations UNESCO Award for Science Reporting). Dr. Raizada has also served as an invited commentator on agricultural issues at public forums, and on print, radio and TV.

Dr. Raizada has appeared twice before the Parliament of Canada as an invited Expert Witness on agriculture.

Dr. Sharbel’s research group investigates apomixis (asexual plant reproduction via seeds) in natural populations, using evolutionary theory, population genetics and advanced “omics” methods, with the goal of identifying apomixis factors for agricultural improvement.

Dr. Sharbel worked as a technician in an amphibian genetics laboratory at McGill University from 1987 until 1995, and simultaneously completed his BSc and MSc in evolution and biology at McGill.  In 1995 he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology (Seewiesen, Germany), where he completed his Phd in Biology, studying the evolution of sex in flatworms from the Italian Alps. In 1999 he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Jena, Germany) to work on apomixis as a post doc.  In 2005 he began as head of the apomixis research group at the Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK Gatersleben, Germany).  On Sept 1^st 2015, he began as the Research Chair in Seed Biology at the newly-formed Global Institute for Food Security in Saskatoon.

“Will Agriculture be ALLOWED to feed 9 Billion People”

Robert Saik, Founder of The Agri-Trend® Group of Companies (now part of Trimble Navigation) is a Professional Agrologist and a Certified Agricultural Consultant. In his capacity as Founder and now Global Business Development for Agri-Trend, Robert has been involved in the development of many new business processes and spearheaded several advancements in technology integration in agriculture including the development of The Agri-Data® Solution which was a winner of Alberta’s 2002 E-business of the Year for on-line farm data management as well as 2015 Ag Innovation of the Year Award by Agri-Trade Show. In addition to being a keen entrepreneur, Rob’s technical strengths lie in soil chemistry, plant physiology and crop nutrition.

Agri-Trend was recognized as a 2012 & 2014 Western Regional Canada Top 50 Best Managed Company and was recognized by Venture Magazine as one of Alberta’s 2013 top 25 Most Innovative Organizations. He is the creator of The Agri-Prize contest series, a skills based incentive competition for agriculture and launched The Canola 100 Agri-Prize in July 2015 which is a collaboration with Agri-Trend, John Deere and Glacier FarmMedia.

Robert was awarded the 2014 Canadian Agri-Marketer of the Year by the Canadian Association of Agricultural Marketers. Robert is also the author of an Amazon 2014 Best of Books, “The Agriculture Manifesto” – 10 Key Drivers That Will Shape Agriculture in the next Decade. His is also the publisher of The AgADVANCE Journal, 2014 Western Trade Journal of the Year.

Rob serves on several boards and is a member of many professional associations. In 2006 he was recognized as Distinguished Agrologist of the Year by the Alberta Institute of Agrology. He is passionate about pursuing business opportunities in the Agricultural Sector.

Kiran Sharma is currently working as a Principal Scientist (Cell & Molecular Biology) at ICRISAT. He obtained MSc degree in Plant Physiology from the CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar in India in 1983, and a PhD in Botany from the University of Delhi in 1988. During 1987-1991 he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Calgary in Canada where he worked on various aspects of cell and developmental biology and transgenics where he was introduced to vast opportunities offered by genetic engineering technology for crop improvement. In 1991, he joined ICRISAT in India as an Internationally Recruited Scientist with the responsibilities to develop transformation systems for ICRISAT’s mandate legume crops to address various biotic and abiotic constraints and their nutritional improvement. He has published over 140 peer-reviewed publications and trained several graduate students.

Kiran has been involved with setting-up of an Agri-Business Incubator at ICRISAT which is a unique project to facilitate the creation of competitive agribusiness enterprises through technology development and commercialization. More recently, he conceptualized and set-up a Platform for Translational Research on Transgenic Crops (PTTC) that aims to promote existing transgenic proof-of-concepts from the public sector research institutions into value-added products of commercial use that can be affordably used by the resource-poor farmers of the semi-arid tropics in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Kiran Sharma is a strong believer of biotechnology and feels that its judicious use in agriculture can solve many problems of crop improvement that cannot be tackled by conventional means alone.

Dr. Steven Shafer was named the first Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of the Soil Health Institute (www.soilhealthinstitute.org), effective May 2, 2016.  The Institute’s mission is to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of the soil.  Launched in 2015, the Institute is an evolution of the Soil Renaissance, which was established in 2013 by the Noble Foundation and Farm Foundation to advance soil health and make it the cornerstone of land use management decisions.  As CSO, Dr. Shafer is responsible for developing and establishing the scientific direction, strategy and implementation plan for Institute research programs and establishing the research priorities for the Institute.  His duties include leading the scientific research and coordinating projects carried out at various institutions that advance soil health science and result in useful and reportable results. Dr. Shafer joined the Soil Health Institute after a career spanning more than 32 years in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).  In his last position, he served as Associate Administrator for National Programs in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS).  In this role, he was the senior leader and manager for planning, prioritizing, and budgeting ARS’ comprehensive agricultural research programs nationwide.  He began his career as a Research Plant Pathologist in ARS’ Air Quality-Plant Growth and Development Research Unit at Raleigh, NC, with concurrent faculty appointment in the Plant Pathology and Soil Science departments at North Carolina State University. His research focused on interactions of air quality with plants, pathogenic and beneficial microorganisms, and soils.  He received B.S. Agr. and M.S. degrees from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, all in plant pathology, with research emphasis on soil microbiology and chemistry.  He is a native of Marion, Ohio.

Departments: Agricultural and Resource Economics

Visit Stuart’s blog at: http://www.saifood.ca

Education:

Ph.D. University of Saskatchewan

BA University of Saskatchewan

Research:

Research focuses on the intersect of regulation and liability as it relates to innovation. The area of innovation that I most commonly work in is that of agricultural biotechnology.

Jennifer (PhD Rhodes) is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town. She was Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and Director of the Laboratory for Molecular and Cell Biology for the CSIR, before becoming Head of the Department of Microbiology at UCT. She won the L’Oreal/UNESCO prize for Women in Science for Africa in 2004 and has an Honorary Doctorate from the Sorbonne University. Her research field is the development of genetically modified maize resistant to the African endemic maize streak virus and tolerant to drought.  She has published three books on Genetically Modified Organisms: Genes for Africa, Seeds for the Future, and Food for Africa. She is a member of the board of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), based in Nairobi and vice-chair of ISAAA (International Service for the Acquisition of AgriBiotech Applications). She serves on the National Advisory Council on Innovation of the South African Minister of Science and Technology and chairs the South African chapter of the Organisation of Women in Science for the Developing World.

Dr. Leena Tripathi (Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology) is Senior Scientist leading the Plant Transformation Unit at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nairobi. Her primary research focuses on genetic improvement of banana, cassava, enset and yam for disease and pest resistance to enhance production, which will lead the food security, income, and wellbeing of resource-poor people in sub-Saharan Africa. She also is involved in capacity building through training of researchers from National Agricultural Research systems (NARS) and supervising students for Master and Ph.D. degree. She has trained more than 30 post graduate students and 200 short term trainees including researchers and regulators in past 10 years in the field of plant transformation, molecular biology, molecular diagnostics and biosafety.

She has written several Journal articles, book chapters and presented several papers in conferences and workshops.  She is recipient of several awards and scholarships. She is member of many scientific societies, and editors and reviewers for several books and International Journals. Her research has been featured in more than 150 national and international media outlets including Nature News, Discovery News, Nature Biotech., CNN- Earth’s Frontiers, Guardian, The Standard, SciDev Net, Crop Biotech update, Science Times Magazine, Science News, American Scientist etc.

Mark Tester is Professor of Bioscience at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. He was previously in Adelaide, where he was a Research Professor in the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics and Director of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility. Mark led the establishment of this Facility, a $55m organisation that develops and delivers state-of-the-art phenotyping facilities, including The Plant Accelerator, an innovative plant growth and analysis facility. He now leads a research group in which forward and reverse genetic approaches are used to understand and manipulate traits that contribute to salinity tolerance and improve this in crops such as barley and tomatoes. His aspiration is to unlock seawater, by developing a new economically viable agricultural system where salt-tolerant crops are irrigated with partially desalinised seawater or brackish groundwater

Rajeev Varshney is a Research Program Director, Grain Legumes & Director, Center of Excellence in Genomics at ICRISAT and Winthrop Research Professor at The University of Western Australia. In his dual appointment, he also served CGIAR Generation Challenge Program as Theme Leader for six years. Before joining ICRISAT, he worked at IPK-Gatersleben, Germany for five years.

Rajeev has recently won the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award – Biological Sciences, the most coveted and prestigious award from Government of India.  He is internationally recognized for his contribution in genome sequencing of pigeonpea, chickpea, peanut, pearl millet, sesame, mungbean and adzuki bean and development of molecular breeding products in chickpea, pigeonpea and peanut.  Rajeev, a Highly Cited Researcher as per Thomson Reuters, has published  >300 publications including in Nature, Nature Biotech, Nature Commun, PNAS, etc.

Rajeev is an Elected Fellow of  the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) as well as leading science academies of India including  Indian National Science Academy (INSA), The National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI), National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India (NAAS),  AP Akademi of Sciences (APAS) and Telangana State Akademi of Sciences (TSAS), India  He is also the recipient of Young Scientist awards from many of above mentioned academies. Rajeev has also received several prestigious awards including Research Excellence India Citation Award 2015 by Thomson Reuters, Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters in 2014 and 2015; The Illumina Agricultural Greater Good Initiative Award by Illumina Inc. USA, NASI-Scopus Young Scientist Award, Plaque/Certificate of Appreciation from Department of Agriculture– Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR)-The Philippines, Nepal Agricultural Research Council- Nepal, Vietnam Academy of Agriculural Sciences-Vietnam.

Rajeev has been a frequent invited speaker in several conferences e.g. G-8 Conference on “Open Data for Agriculture”, FAO conference on “Agricultural Biotechnologies”, brainstorming session on digital agriculture chaired by Bill Gates and Nature Genetics conference. Rajeev provides leadership to several organizations by serving member/chair for several committees, editorial boards, funding organizations and advisory boards.

Bernard Vanlauwe joined IITA in Kenya in March 2012 to lead the Central Africa hub and the Natural Resource Management research area. In this capacity, he is also having an oversight role in the Humidtropics, the Water, Land, and Ecosystems, and the CCAFS CGIAR Research Programs. Prior to this recent appointment, he was the leader of the Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) program of the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility research area of CIAT (TSBF-CIAT). He joined CIAT-TSBF in 2001 and led the development, adaptation, and dissemination of best ISFM options in various agro-ecological zones in sub-Saharan Africa.

In September 2010, the obtained a Visiting Professor position at the Swedish Agricultural University in Uppsala in the Soils and Environment Department. Before, he worked at IITA in Nigeria (1991 – 2000) and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1989-1991), focusing on unraveling the mechanisms underlying nutrient and soil organic matter dynamics in tropical agro-ecosystems. In that context, he obtained his PhD in 1996 in Applied Biological Sciences. He has published over 150 papers in scientific journals and over 160 in other forms and has (co-) supervised over 40 PhD and over 60 MSc students

Albert Vandenberg is a pulse crop breeder at the Crop Development Centre.  He holds the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Lentil Genetic Improvement.  He has developed all of Canada’s current lentil varieties and developed several new market classes to help the industry expand and diversify.  The three main research components of the NSERC chair are the implementation of molecular assisted breeding for disease resistance, the development of knowledge on the underlying genetics for nutritional improvement of lentil as a human food, and exploration of the lentil underground.   The long term objectives for lentil breeding are disease resistance, herbicide tolerance, improved agronomic and quality characteristics, and improved productivity.  His research ecosystem includes a wide range of collaborations in many different disciplines including human nutrition, toxicology, fortification and biofortification.

Dr. Yarrow joined CropLife Canada – the Ottawa-based trade association representing the developers, manufacturers, and distributors of plant science innovations – in June 2011, as the organization’s Vice-President, Plant Biotechnology.  In this role at the association, Stephen applies his 30 years of experience in biotechnology to contribute to enabling the plant biotechnology industry to bring the benefits of its technologies to growers, producers, processors and the public, at the same time contributing to CropLife Canada being the trustworthy, authoritative and unified voice for Canadian plant biotechnology product developers.

Prior to his appointment with CropLife Canada, Stephen spent 19 years as a Canadian Government public servant in Ottawa in various roles relating to the regulation of agricultural products, including plants derived from biotechnology. He played a key role in establishing Canada’s internationally recognized regulatory systems for the confined and unconfined release of biotech plants, including creating the Canadian policy concerning regulating the product and not the process, i.e. plants with novel traits.

During his time with the Government, Stephen had extensive international experience, including the negotiation of the UN Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, an active player with the OECD’s Working Group on Biotechnology Harmonization, and leading regulatory cooperation initiatives with the US and Mexico, China and India. Prior to government, Dr. Yarrow spent nine years in Toronto working for the biotechnology company Allelix Inc., in the field of plant tissue culture and plant genetic manipulation research.

Stephen received a PhD from the University of Nottingham and a BSc from the University of Birmingham.