Prof. Richard Ellis
Professor
University of Reading

Professor Richard Ellis research at the University of Reading, reported in 345 papers and books, concerns the reproductive biology of agricultural and horticultural crop plants with regard to the effect of environment on both seeds and crops. Research on seeds includes seed quality development and seed storage (including the seed viability equation) and has been applied, for example, to the work of the international network of gene-banks. Research on progress to flowering and photo-thermal environment focuses on global crop adaptation and climate change impacts, and also that of climate variability in terms of extreme events at vulnerable stages of crop development, and what happens after seed set to seed quality development in response to environment in terms of the consequences for subsequent seed survival.

Didier Demilly
Phenotyping Engineer, Variety and Seed Study and Control Group
GEVES

Didier Demilly is a Research Engineer with INRA, working at GEVES – SNES French National Seed Testing Station – Beaucouzé France. The main topic of his research is the development and use of tools for seed and seedling phenotyping via the platform PHENOTIC.

Dr José Joao Carvalho
Head of Global Business Development and Regulatory Policy for Agro dossiers
Dr Knoell Consult

Dr José Joao Carvalho is Head of Global Business Development and Regulatory Policy for Agro dossiers at Dr Knoell Consult, an independent service provider for Regulatory Affairs and Product Registrations since 20 years. With his regional teams, José is looking after new regulatory policies and guidance development in the different regions, focusing on regulatory frameworks impacting agriculture productivity: plant protection products (chemical and non-chemical solutions), new application technologies, soil-less technologies, soil amendments, genetic varieties, water policy.
Previously he was an European and Global Registration Manager for crop protection and biocide products, coordinating active ingredient and product’s dossiers for approval by national regulatory agencies (market-assess) in different regions, on behalf of several R&D multinational companies.

Tomáš Funda
Deputy Coordinator of IUFRO Working Party
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Tomáš is a researcher at the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology (Umeå Plant Science Centre) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå, Sweden. He received his masters’ degree in Forestry Engineering (Ing.) in 2003 from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Republic, and in 2012 he completed a PhD degree in Forest Genetics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Tomas has been focusing on studying the mating dynamics of forest tree seed orchards. He estimates the genetic quality of seed crops through the quantification of male and female reproductive success, self-fertilization and pollen contamination. He has co-developed an optimization model for balancing genetic gain and diversity in seed orchard crops and has evaluated several clone-deployment and management strategies for improving seed orchards’ seed quality through the use of molecular markers.

Tomas has taught several undergraduate courses on forest dendrology, genetics and tree breeding. As a Deputy Coordinator of the IUFRO Working Group 2.09.01 “Seed Orchards”, he chaired an international IUFRO Seed Orchard Conference held in Sweden in 2017.

Sebastian Blunk
Research Student
University of Nottingham

Sebastian Blunk received his BSc in Bioinformatics and Genome Research at the University of Bielefeld (Germany) in 2013 and received the MSc in Genome Based Systems Biology at the University of Bielefeld in 2015. He then moved to the University of Nottingham, Nottingham (UK) to study the germination behaviour of sugar beet seeds in situ and seed soil interactions using X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) for his PhD funded by Syngenta. His work focuses on exploring the interface between the seed and soil to identify and characterise the key players in succesful germination.

Prof. Elwira Sliwinska
Professor
UTP University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz

Prof. Elwira Sliwinska is Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Cytometry at the UST in Bydgoszcz, Poland. She began her career conducting research on seeds of sugar beet, in cooperation with several European seed companies. She has worked as a Visiting Scientist at the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA and the University of Guelph, Canada, has been a member of the Seed Quality and Testing Group of the International Institute for Scientific Seed research (IIRB), is the Regional Representative for Eastern Europe and Russia of the International Society for Seed Science (ISSS), and is an EC expert. She has published circa150 scientific papers, reviews and books. Her present research is focused on applying flow cytometry to plant genome estimation as well as to the establishment of cell cycle and endoreduplication intensity during seed development and germination, and during development of different seedling/plant organs of various species. The information gainedcan be applied not only by researchers, but also by plant breeders, especially in polyploid and hybrid breeding, and by seed producers to follow the physiological status of seeds during development, maturation, and germination/priming.

Dr Juan Carlos Cabrera
R&D director
Fyteko SA

Dr Cabrera (PhD in chemistry from Havana University, Cuba and PhD in biology from Namur University, Belgium) conducted post-doctoral work at Valencia University, Spain, National Institute for Agronomic Research INRA-Nantes, France and Namur University, Belgium. He is Project Manager at the biotechnology unit of Materia Nova, associate researcher at the university of Mons, and R&D director of Fyteko SA, Belgium. He is mostly interested in the development of new bioactive molecules acting as plant biostimulants.

Dr Cristina Barrero Sicilia
Research Fellow
University of Hertfordshire

Dr Barrero-Sicilia is a Research Fellow in Systems Biology for Food and Disease, working between the School of Life and Medical Sciences (within the Centre of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Management) and the School of Computer Science at University of Hertfordshire. Cristina is an expert plant molecular biologist focused in elucidating plant biological mechanisms such as seed development/germination or plant response to abiotic stresses, and transferring the acquired knowledge in model plants to improve traits in agronomic crops.

Prof. Gerhard Leubner
Chair of Plant Biochemistry
Royal Holloway University of London

Prof. Gerhard Leubner is Consultant to KWS Saat SE (Einbeck, Germany) Sugarbeet Seed Quality, Production and Technology and leads several projects on sugar beet seed quality, aging, and priming with KWS Saat SE, as well as projects on seed treatment with beneficial microbes with Azotic Technologies (Nottingham, UK). His research group aims to understand the molecular basis underlying seed dormancy, longevity and germination to be able to improve seed quality and seedling performance of horticultural and agricultural crops in a changing climate by breeding and appropriate seed treatment and enhancement technologies.

Important discoveries in the field of crop and weed seed germination, dormancy and seed quality and technology using interdisciplinary and integrative approaches including molecular biomechanics. Lead PI of the ERA-CAPS European Network Consortium “SeedAdapt” (www.seedadapt.eu), of a BBSRC project on seed proanthocyanidins, and of several applied projects in collaboration with seed industry. This includes the AgriTech Catalyst Projects “Novel biomaterial engineering Technologies, molecular and hormone analyses to improve vegetable seed priming and production in stressful environments” with Elsoms Seeds (Spalding, UK) and “Innovative oxygen- and epigenetics-related assays and marker for Allium seed quality” with Tozer Seeds (Cobham, UK). 

Prof. Ole Søgaard Lund
Associate Professor
University of Copenhagen

Prof. Ole Søgaard Lund is a Biochemist (M.Sc, University of Copenhagen) and subsequently as a plant pathologist (Ph.Dfrom Danish Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, 2002). Since 2007, he is employed as associate professor and has conducted research on plants (seeds) and microbes (viruses, bacteria, fungi and nematodes) in collaboration with EU, European Industry, Danish companies, Danish Governmental Research agencies and oversea partners in India and Africancountries.
Research area:
Seed treatment and molecular detection of microbes.
48 scientific publications, H-index = 16.

Dr Kazumi Nakabayashi
Research Scientist
Royal Holloway University of London

Dr Kazumi Nakabayashi is a research scientist at Royal Holloway University of London. She has been working on the molecular mechanism of seed dormancy and germination for 15 years in Japan, Germany and the UK. Her research include characterisation of QTG (quantitative trait gene), abiotic and hormonal regulation using physiological, molecular and biochemical approaches in model species and also in various crop and weed species.

Sara Oldfield
Freelance Biodiversity Consultant & Co-Chair
IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group

Sara is a freelance biodiversity consultant with strong managerial expertise in programme and project planning, implementation and evaluation. In February 2015 she stepped down as Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) after 10 years with the organisation.
Before joining BGCI, she worked as Global Programmes Director for Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and previously worked for UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG). Sara also worked as a freelance consultant for over ten years, undertaking research and providing policy advice on international biodiversity conservation. She is currently Co-Chair of the IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group, responsible for promoting and implementing projects to Red List and conserve globally threatened tree species.

Stephen Beal
Independent seed treatment consultant for the Agri and biotech industry
Blue Shed Consulting Ltd

Stephen Beal, is an experienced Agri Business professional with over 25 years of experience with seed treatments and applied technology. With a Bachelors’ degree in Crop Protection from Essex University, he has gained experience from working in field trials, customer key account management, marketing management, global product management, country and regional business development and management and business integration.
Following a career working for leading R&D based agrochemical manufacturers and the world’s largest seed companies, he has a unique perspective on how seed technology is discovered, developed, commercialised and managed in markets all over the world with a focus on Europe and North America.

Dr. (Mrs.) Malavika Dadlani
President (2017-2020)
Indian Society of Seed Technology

Dr.Malavika Dadlani is the former Joint Director (Research) and Head, Division of Seed Science and Technology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. She has nearly 40 years of research, teaching, extension and management experience and is well known nationally and internationally in the field of Seed Science and Technology. As a member of several important committees of the Govt. of India, she contributed in technical and policy issues. She has served as a Consultant to a number of international organisations, viz., FAO, GFA, Bioversity International, CCAFS etc.
She has guided a large number of Post Graduate students, leading to 21 M.Sc./ Ph.D. degrees and published over 200 scientific papers, books, chapters, manuals etc., of which more than 115 are in peer reviewed journals, which are widely referred and cited. She received several awards and recognitions for her contributions in the area of seed research and teaching. She was a member of the ISTA Vigour Committee from 2001 for 10 years. Her areas of special interest include Seed Viability, Vigour and Invigoration; and Variety purity and Seed supply system. She has contributed for over 30 years on seed quality enhancement through invigoration, coating, additives and electro magnetic stimulations. Dr. Dadlani is presently the President of the Indian Society of Seed Technology, the oldest professional body in Seed Technology in India.

Dr Olaf Roeder
Management Director & Co-owner
EVONTA-Service GmbH

Dr Olaf Roeder is management director and co-owner of EVONTA-Service GmbH. With a doctorate in mechanical engineering, he initially worked as a design engineer at the Fraunhofer FEP and development manager in the non-thermal electron beam technology division of the Fraunhofer Dresden. He is considered the father of the latest seed treatment technology known as “Electron Treatment of Seeds”. Olaf Röder was then appointed director of the Energy, Environment and Life Science division at the Fraunhofer IKTS. He set up the company EVONTA-Service in 2009. As management director he is primarily responsible for business development, R&D and product development.

Dr Tongyun Shen
Co-founder, Partner and also R&D Director
Nelson Seed Development AB

Dr Tongyun Shen PhD in seed science. Dr Shen awarded Swedish Creation price – innovation price to memory of inventor Alfred Nobel 2016, the Swedish biggest innovation price. She has also awarded the Technician of the year price 2016 of Swedish chamber of commerce. In the last 20 years her research interest is focused on the field of seed enhancement and seed quality assessment. Seed vitalization is one of the recent example.