Advisory Board and Editors Agricultural Science
Carmen Arena
Carmen Arena is Associate Professor in Ecology at the Department of Biology of the University of Naples Federico II. She conducts researches in the ecological disciplines, dealing with studies concerning photosynthesis and morpho-functional adaptation strategies of higher plants and macroalgae in response to mono and multiple stresses in natural and controlled environments, with applications in ecological, biotechnological and agronomic field.
The research activity holds three main issues:
1) Regulation of the photosynthetic process in higher plants and macroalgae in response to ecological factors in the context of environmental change.
2) Study of plant growth in an extra-terrestrial environment.
3) Plant-soil interactions in natural and anthropized ecosystems.
These researches include a) the eco-physiological response of crop species to light quality; (b) the morpho-functional strategies of plant in phytoremediation studies (c)) the relationship between soil pollution, edaphic communities and photosynthesis in higher plants used in biomonitoring studies.
C. Arena is author of 130 publications peer-reviewed ISI-WoS/Scopus, and participated to more than 150 National and International congresses and workshops, most of them as speaker and invited speaker.
Volker Bahn
I am an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Wright State University. Previously I was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University working in Macroecology with Brian McGill. My PhD is from the University of Maine in Wildlife Ecology with advisers Bill Krohn and Raymond O'Connor, and MS (German Diplom) in Conservation Biology from Philipps University Marburg with Harald Plachter and Peter Poschlod, in collaboration with Alan Burger from University of Victoria.
Teri Balser
Professor Teri Balser is Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where she came after having been Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida. She received a Ph.D. in soil microbiology came from the University of California at Berkeley, and she completed postdoctoral research in ecosystem ecology at Stanford University. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and was recently named to the Australian Research Council College of Experts.
Her research centers on understanding microbial community-level ecophysiological responses to stress, disturbance, and change, and the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning. She has worked in countries worldwide studying restoration, carbon sequestration, invasive species, biodiversity, and land use/land cover.
In addition to international recognition as an accomplished research scholar, Dr. Balser is widely known in higher education as a change agent and leader in Science, Technology Engineering and Math education (STEM). She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a National Vision and Change Fellow with the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity at the national level for pedagogically advanced and responsive STEM education.
Paula Baptista
Paula Baptista is currently Auxiliary Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), coordinator of the topic "Sustainable Agriculture and Innovative Agro-food Chains" of the “Mountain Research Center” and the convenor of the International Organisation for Biological Control (IOBC), working group ‘Integrated protection of olive crops”. Her main interests are focused on plant-microbe-insect interactions, biological control, plant microbiome and microbial biocontrol agents.
Gianni Barcaccia
Since 2017, Dr. Gianni Barcaccia is a full Professor of Plant Genetics and Genomics at the School of Agriculture Science and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Padova (Italy) and Adjunct Professor of Plant Breeding at the University of Georgia, Athens (USA). Education: M.Sc. degree in Plant Genetics and Breeding in 1991 and Ph.D. title on Plant Reproductive Systems and Population Genetics in 1995 at the University of Perugia, Italy. Tenured Professor of Plant Genetics and Genomics at the University of Padova from 2001 to 2016.
Head of the Department of Agronomy Food Natural resources Animals and Environment (DAFNAE) at the University of Padova for the academic years 2019-2023 (www.dafnae.unipd.it). Vice-director and Coordinator of the Department Commissions for Scientific Research, Technology Transfer and Third Mission from 2014 to 2019.
Head of the Laboratory of Genomics for Plant Breeding, University of Padova. Research expertise on plant reproductive systems and barriers (male-sterility, self-incompatibility and apomixis), use of molecular markers for population genetics and genomics selection, and marker-assisted breeding. Principal investigator of BreedOmics, a laboratory service of genomics for breeding populations and for genetic identification of varieties and genetic authentication of their foodstuffs. Molecular techniques: DNA fingerprinting, SSR genotyping, SNP haplotyping, DNA barcoding, NGS sequencing (www.giannibarcaccia.com).
Matthew PG Barnett
I'm currently a Senior Research Scientist in the Physiology & Health Team at AgResearch Limited, one of New Zealand's Crown Research Institutes (CRIs). I'm based at the University of Auckland's Liggins Institute, being involved in several projects investigating the importance of nutrition for health throughout life. The primary focus of these projects is intestinal health, but I'm also interested other aspects of human health, including cognition and mobility.
I graduated from The University of Auckland in May 2005 with a PhD in Biological Sciences. My thesis research focused on the importance of a mother’s diet during gestation and lactation on the risk of type-2 diabetes in her offspring. Since 2001 I've worked for AgResearch in a range of roles (including Research Associate, FRST Postdoctoral Fellow, and Research Scientist) and on a variety of topics. I was part of the Nutrigenomics New Zealand collaboration from 2004-2014, working on understanding how our diet and genome interact to influence health with a particular focus on intestinal function.
I was the Section Editor (Nutrigenomics) for the European Journal of Nutrition from 2014 to 2019.
Giorgia Batelli
Dr. Giorgia Batelli is a Plant Genetics Researcher at the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources. She received her Degree in Plant Biotechnology (2003) and PhD in Plant Biology and Chemistry (2007) at the University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy. She studies physiological and cellular mechanisms employed by plants (Arabidopsis, Solanaceae) to respond to salt and drought stress with a focus on ABA-mediated signalling, using a variety of molecular and genetic tools.
Jacqueline Batley
Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia. I hold an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. Research interests include plant-pathogen interactions, crop genetics and genomics, genome sequencing, Brassicas, structural variation, diversity genomics, methylation
Travis Beddoe
Prof. Travis Beddoe is a multidisciplinary scientist, training initially as a plant biochemist before studying molecular chaperones in mitochondrial targeting as a PhD student (awarded March 2004), and eventually training in biophysical and structural biology in immune receptors as a postdoctoral researcher. He started his independent research career at Monash University with an NHMRC CDA fellowship (2008) followed by a Pfizer Australia Research fellowship (2010) in the area of glycan specificity in bacterial pathogenesis and physiology. Dr. Beddoe changed research fields when he was recruited to La Trobe University in 2014 as a senior lecturer to establish a laboratory focused on livestock-pathogen interactions in the School of Animal, Plant and Soil Science located in the AgriBio centre. His research is concentrated on aiding animal health with a focus on field-based diagnostics, molecular understanding of the role glycans and glycan-binding proteins play in disease pathogenesis and vaccine development.
Viktor V. Brygadyrenko
Dr. Viktor Brygadyrenko is an Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology and Ecology at Oles Honchar Dnipro National University.
His main scientific projects include:
- Effect of heavy metal ions on the development of invertebrates.
- Morphological variability in populations of beetles in conditions of anthropogenically altered ecosystems.
- Trophic relations of species in litter macrofauna of Ukraine.
- Structure of litter macrofauna communities in forest ecosystems of Ukraine.
- Influence of medicinal plants, flavourings and source materials, approved for use in and on foods, on eggs and larvae of nematodes of mammals.
- Ecological niches of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in Ukraine.
- Morphometric variation in ground beetles.
Rishi R. Burlakoti
Dr. Rishi Burlakoti is a Research Scientist- Plant Pathology at Agassiz Research and Development Center, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (AAFC). His research programs focuses on diseases of high value horticultural crops including berry crops, field and greenhouse vegetables crops of British Columbia. Dr. Burlakoti is also an Adjunct Professor in Faculty of Land and Food System, University of British Columbia (UBC) and in Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph. Dr. Burlakoti is serving in editorial boards of ‘Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology’, ‘Canadian Journal of Plant Science’, and ‘Plants’. Dr. Burlakoti is a member of Canadian Phytopathological Society (CPS) and International Society for Horticultural Sciences. He is also a life member of Society of Agricultural Scientist Nepal and Nepalese Society of Horticultural Science, Nepalese Professional of Americas.
Dr. Burlakoti earned PhD in Plant Pathology from North Dakota State University, USA. Before Joining AAFC, Dr. Burlakoti worked as a Plant Pathologist in World Vegetable Center and led the Mycology and Bacteriology units at Center’s headquarters in Taiwan. He also worked as a Research Lead an Agricultural Consulting Company, Weather Innovations Consulting LP, in Canada. Dr. Burlakoti lead several applied research projects on diversified crops including vegetables, field crops and fruits to improve disease/pest management capacity and to increase crop productivity.
Rachel A Burton
I am currently a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, based at the University of Adelaide. I undertook my PhD at the John Innes Centre, Norwich. My expertise is in the areas of plant molecular biology particularly as it relates to cell wall biosynthesis, remodeling and degradation and how these impact cereal end use quality. I also have an interest in the development and application of novel experimental methods for transcript profiling and gene discovery.