Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Italy;Dr. Giuseppe Montanaro is an Associate Professor at the Agricultural, Forestry, Foof and Environmental Dept. at the University of Basilicata in Italy, where he also earned his PhD in 2006. As a plant physiologist and ecologist, his research focuses heavily on sustainable agriculture, plant–environment interactions, abiotic stress, and water relations in Mediterranean perennial crops like grapevines and olives. He has authored +80 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and his highly-cited work on adapting orchards to climate change and restoring soil health can be explored on Google Scholar and ResearchGate. He is merging his plant-physiology background with affordable image-based plant phenotyping for identification of suitable proxies contributing to digital agriculture. He is involved in Phen-Italy, the Italian node of the of the European Infrastructure EMPHASIS.

Forschungszentrum Jülich (Jülich, Germany);Dr. Roland Pieruschka is a Senior Scientist at Forschungszentrum Jülich within the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG-2: Plant Sciences). As a leading expert in plant phenotyping, non-destructive sensing, and stress physiology, his research centers on understanding plant performance, photosynthesis, and transpiration under environmental stress to support climate-resilient crop breeding. He plays a major role in international plant phenomics initiatives, such as the German Plant Phenotyping Infrastructure (DPPN). Additionally, he provides key operational management and coordination for multiple EU-funded projects that aim to advance plant phenomics methods and technology (PHENET) and enable the use of these technologies to address scientific questions (AgroServ, Microbes-4-Climate).