10 May 2021

10:00-12:00 AM (CEST)

Dr. Giandomenico Corrado

Dr. Nunzio D’Agostino

10 May 2021

2:00-4:00 PM (CEST)

Dr. Youssef Rouphael

Dr. Giuseppe Colla

11 May 2021

10:00-12:30 AM (CEST)

Dr. Youssef Rouphael

Dr. Giuseppe Colla

14 May 2021

9:00-11:00 AM (CEST)

Dr. Gianni Bellocchi

Prof. Dr. Ezio Portis

Ezio Portis is a Full Professor of Plant Genetics. At present, he is in charge of the following courses at the School of Agriculture Science and Veterinary Medicine, University of Torino: Genetics, Genomic Selection, and Seed Genetics. He was previously in charge the courses Plant Breeding, Plant Biotechnology, Functional Genomics, Genetics Applied to Food Production, and Bioinformatics courses. His main research topics are: (i)plant genetics: development and application of molecular markers, construction of molecular-linkage maps, QTL and GWAS analysis, and marker-assisted selection (MAS); (ii) genomics and transcriptomics analyses of horticultural crops through the application of NGS technologies and related bioinformatics; (iii) characterization and management of plant genetic resources; (iv) studies of the biosynthetic pathway of secondary metabolites in plants; and (v) seed genetics. He has published about 170 articles (104 and 110 records are available in both the Web of Science and Scopus databases, respectively, and 51 records in the NCBI PubMed database).

Prof. Dr. Annalisa Polverari

Affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Italy

Annalisa Polverari is an Associate Professor of Plant Pathology with the Department of Biotechnology at the University of Verona.

After graduating in Agricultural Sciences, she worked in the industrial field in the phytosanitary sector before becoming a researcher at the University of Perugia in 1991. In 1999, she moved to the University of Verona, where she is currently vice-director of the Department of Biotechnology. Her scientific activity is focused on plant–pathogen interactions, both in basic and applied research, in particular dealing with ultrastructural and molecular aspects of resistance, functional characterization of resistance-associated genes, biotechnological approaches for grapevine resistance to Plasmopara viticola, and, more recently, with the characterization of biovar virulence in Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae and the identification of natural compounds capable of inhibiting bacterial pathogenicity. She has authored 34 articles indexed in Scopus, with an H-index of 14.

Dr. Gianfranco Diretto

Affiliation: Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Sustainable Development, Casaccia Research Centre, Italy

Dr. Diretto obtained a degree in Plant Biotechnology with full marks in 2002 at the University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy. He holds a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of L’Aquila, and spent 2.5 years as a visiting scientist at the BTI (USA), University of Freiburg (Germany), NIB (Slovenia), the IBMCP (Spain), and the INRA-INP Research Unit (France), learning plant transcriptomics and metabolomics techniques. His main interests are genetics and metabolic engineering, by heterologous overexpression or CRISPR-Cas9 KO technology, of carotenoids and apocarotenoids (ABA, crocins, picrocrocin,n and zaxinone), curcuminoids, and anthocyanins in agricultural plants, with particular emphasis on potato and tomato. After 2009, these interests extended to plant and microalgae metabolomics, particularly to nutritional (glycoalkaloids) and antinutritional secondary metabolites, and to systems biology and bioinformatics to identify relevant biological elements (genes and metabolites) associated to a specific phenotype or genetic trait.

Dr. Alessandro Nicolia

Affiliation: CREA - Research Centre for vegetable and ornamental plants

Alessandro Nicolia graduated in Science and Technology in Agriculture at th University of Perugia (Italy); he defended his Ph.D. thesis on plant biology and agro-environmental biotechnologies at the University of Perugia. He worked as a post-doc at the University of Perugia (Italy) from 2009 to 2012, at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (Alnarp, Sweden) from 2012 to 2014, and at the ENEA - Research Centre Casaccia (Rome, Italy) from 2014 to 2017. Since 2017, he has been a researcher at CREA - Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (CREA-OF) (Pontecagnano, Italy) and is responsible for the laboratory of in vitro culture and biotechnology. His research activity is focused on the use of new plant breeding techniques for genetic improvement of tomato.

Prof. Dr. Youssef Rouphael

Affiliation: Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, Italy

Youssef Rouphael is an Associate Professor of Horticulture with the Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II. He is Section Editor-in-Chief of Agronomy MDPI and Associate Editor of several leading journals in horticultural science and has been a guest editor on biostimulants, vegetable grafting, specialty crops (microgreens and edible flowers), biofortification of vegetables, and quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables at harvest in several international journals in horticultural science. Prof. Rouphael has published 333 articles indexed in the Scopus database with a total of 9098 citations and an h-index of 56. He is a member of the scientific committee on Biostimulant.com. Prof. Rouphael is internationally known for his research in horticultural science and has coordinated many projects to improve horticultural production.

Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Colla

Affiliation: Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy

Giuseppe Colla is Full Professor in vegetable crop production and floriculture with the Deptartment of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy). He has been a visiting scientist at UC Davis and Purdue University (U.S.) and since 2018, he has been Director of the Experimental Farm 'Nello Lupori' of Tuscia University. His research on horticultural and floricultural crops is focused mainly on plant biostimulants and vegetable grafting as means to optimize resource use efficiency and tolerance to abiotic stresses especially under greenhouse conditions. He has published more than 240 papers (>7500 citations; h-index 52) in peer-reviewed international journals and is listed on the Top Italian Scientists website as one of the most influential Italian scientists.

Dr. Mirella Sorrentino

Affiliation: Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, Italy PSI (Photon Systems Instruments), spol. S.r.o., Drasov, Czech Republic

Mirella Sorrentino is a Ph.D. student with the Department of Agriculture of the University of Naples "Federico II". Her research work is mainly carried out in the Research and Development department of the Photon System Instrument (PSI), a biotechnology company based in Brno, Czech Republic. Here, she investigates the modes of action of different biostimulant substances on lettuce and tomato plants subject to abiotic stress using a high-throughput phenotyping platform.

Dr. Mariateresa Cardarelli

Affiliation: Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria, Centro di ricerca Orticoltura e Floro-vivaismo, 84098 Pontecagnano Faiano, Italy

Mariateresa Cardarelli is a Researcher at Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (Pontecagnano, SA, Italy). Graduated in Agricultural Science with full marks and following with a Ph.D in Biotechnology (Tuscia University, Italy, 2000), she spent training periods at the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies di Chania (Creta) (1998) and the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) in Groβbeeren (2013). In 2016–2017, she was a visiting scientist at Purdue University with the department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture (Indiana, USA). Her professional interests include the growth and quality of vegetable plants under different nutrient conditions or abiotic stress, the effects of vegetable grafting on stress tolerance and nutrient use efficiency, the interactions between biostimulants and plants, and seed treatments with biological products (beneficial microorganisms or natural substances).

Prof. Dr. Youry Pii

Affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen, 39100 Bolzano, Italy

Youry Pii is an Associate Professor of Agricultural Chemistry with the Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bolzano. His research activities are mainly focused on (i) the study of the interactions between plant, soil, and microorganisms, aimed at improving the uptake and use of mineral nutrients; (ii) the physiological and molecular responses in plants subjected to variable nutrients availability; and (iii) the physiological and molecular responses in plants treated with biostimulants. Prof. Pii is author of 67 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals (1097 citations; h-index 20). In addition, he serves an an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Plant Science and MDPI’s Agriculture and as Guest Editor for Acta Horticolturae.

Prof. Dr. Luigi Lucini

Affiliation: Department for Sustainable Food Process, Research Centre for Nutrigenomics and Proteomics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy

Luigi Lucini is a Professor of Biochemistry at Università Cattolica del Sacro cuore, Piacenza, Italy. Following his B.S. in Food Science and Technology (1999), a M.S. in Safety in the Food Industry (2000), and a Ph.D. in Pesticides Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Ecology (2004) from the University of Milan, he joined a private company in the field of fine chemicals being responsible for part of R&D. In 2008, he moved to Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, as researcher, and since 2018, he has been an Associate Professor in agricultural chemistry, teaching classes on the biochemistry, physical-chemistry, and biochemistry of food, and organic chemistry with the Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences. Since 2014, he has been responsible for the metabolomic facility at his faculty, dealing with plant, food, microbiology, and environmental metabolomics. His research topics include the effect of edaphic factors and abiotic stresses on plant biochemistry and plant secondary metabolism, including stress mechanisms, plant resilience, and acclimation processes; as well as the consequent modulation of physiological processes. Furthermore, Luigi Lucini deals with the modulation of functional components in plant-based foods, and the use of plant biostimulants to increase sustainable agricultural production.

Prof. Dr. Youssef Rouphael

Affiliation: Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80055 Portici, Italy

Youssef Rouphael is an Associate Professor of Horticulture at the Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II. He is a Section Editor-in-Chief of MDPI’s Agronomy and the Associate Editor of several leading journals in horticultural science, and has been a guest editor on biostimulants, vegetable grafting, specialty crops (microgreens and edible flowers), the biofortification of vegetables, and the quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables at harvest, in several international journals in horticultural science. Prof. Rouphael has published 333 articles indexed in Scopus database, with a total number of citations of 9098 and an h-index of 56. He is a member of the scientific committee of Biostimulant.com. Prof. Rouphael is internationally known for his research in horticultural science and has coordinated many projects to improve horticultural production.

Prof.Dr. Giuseppe Colla

Affiliation: Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy

Giuseppe Colla is a Full Professor in vegetable crop production and floriculture at Deptartment of Agriculture and Forest Sciences, University of Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy). He has been a visiting scientist at UC Davis and Purdue University (US) and, since 2018, has been the Director of Experimental Farm 'Nello Lupori' at Tuscia University. His research on horticultural and floricultural crops is focused mainly on plant biostimulants and vegetable grafting, as a means to optimise resource use efficiency and tolerance to abiotic stresses, especially under greenhouse conditions. He has published more than 240 papers (>7500 citations; h-index 52) in peer-reviewed international journals and is listed on the Top Italian Scientists website, as one of the most influential Italian scientists.

Dr. Benoit Planque

Affiliation: Chief Compliance Officer for Hello Nature

Benoît PLANQUES is the Chief Compliance Officer for Hello Nature (previously called Italpollina), and has been a worldwide company producer of organic fertilizers and plant biostimulants for 50 years. He has been engaged with this subject since the first discussions on European harmonization regulation for fertilizing products in Paris. His work has increasingly focused on plant biostimulants, and he has been actively following the development of the EU regulation on fertilizing products (regulation UE n°2019/1009) in recent years. He has been involved with the standardization of fertilizing products since 1998. In 2017, he created, with the support of EBIC and AFNOR, the European Technical Committee’s CEN/TC 455 on plant biostimulants, who are currently developing several compliance standards in line with EU regulations. He chairs this European Committee and its French mirror committee. He is also an expert on ISO/TC 134, and acts as convenor of WG 6 on Beneficial Substances/Biostimulants.

Prof.Dr. Manuela Giovannetti

Affiliation: Academy of Georgofili, Logge Uffizi Corti, 50122 Firenze Previously, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy

Full Professor of Agricultural Microbiology, University of Pisa, Italy, from 2000 to 2020. She held the positions of: Director of Research Center “Nutraceuticals and Food for Health” at University of Pisa; Dean of Faculty of Agriculture at University of Pisa; Director of Soil Microbiology Research Center of C.N.R., Italy. She is the author of 160 papers published in international scientific journals; her citation index is 9315 and H-index 44 (20/4/2021). She was a national delegate of EU COST Actions 870 and 8.38; partner/participant to 4 EU projects. She is the principal investigator of many national research projects. She is the Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports and Reviewers in more than 20 scientific journals. Prof. Giovannetti carried out research activities on the nutraceutical value of mycorrhizal plants, molecular/functional diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and of yeasts and lactic acid bacteria, and the structure and function of mycorrhizal networks. She developed, together with Dr. Mosse, the famous analytical method for measuring vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal infection in roots published in New Phytologist in 1980 (https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1980.tb04556.x). She is actively involved in science communication.

Prof.Dr. Maurizio Ruzzi

Affiliation: Department for Innovation in Biological, Agrofood and Forest Systems, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

Maurizio Ruzzi is a Professor of Fermentation Biotechnology at the Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest Systems (DIBAF) of University of Tuscia, Viterbo. His main research interests are in the fields of microbial physiology, characterization of plant and animal associated micro-organisms through molecular tools, development of novel plant biostimulants based on microorganisms and their metabolites, metagenomic analysis of the dynamics of microbial communities in fresh and fermented foods and agricultural and natural environments. He is the author of more than 60 publications in international journals, conference proceedings, and book chapters. He has been recently appointed as Project Leader of the CEN/TC 455 Working Group 3 on “Pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms” for the development of technical specifications in plant biostimulants for listeria monocytogenes and anaerobic micro-organisms.

Dr. Paolo Bonini

Affiliation: oloBion—OMICS LIFE LAB, Barcelona, Spain

Paolo Bonini is the founder and CEO of oloBion, a laboratory of metabolomics analysis located in Barcelona, Spain. oloBion is working in collaboration with NGAlab, a laboratory of Genomics and Metagenomics analysis located in Tarragona, Spain. Mr. Bonini has previously covered the role of R&D Director of the Spanish company Atens, where he obtained more than 10 international patents on microbial-based biostimulants. Mr. Bonini’s research is focused on the use of metabolomics and metagenomics for understanding the mode of action and the mechanism behind the variation of the phenotype induced by biostimulant applications. He published more than 30 papers (>900 citations; h-index 16) in peer-reviewed international journals.