Deodato Tapete

Dr. Deodato Tapete is a Senior Researcher in Earth Observation and data analytics at the Italian Space Agency (ASI). He is in charge of research and development projects based on satellite remote sensing, using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical multi-/hyperspectral sensors to address environmental applications, natural and anthropogenic hazards, cultural heritage, the sustainable use of natural resources and agriculture.

With regard to the latter scientific discipline, he has served as project manager and scientist for several nationally funded projects focused on the use of Earth observation for agricultural applications, including soil moisture estimation, irrigation needs forecasting, crop classification, early-season crop mapping and drought monitoring.

He is currently ASI’s project manager for the Horizon Europe Twinning project “Reaching Excellence in Hyperspectral Remote Sensing” (EXPERT; https://expert-project.rosa.ro/), funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme “Widening participation and spreading excellence” (Grant Agreement No. 101160059). Within this project, a research use case related to agriculture is being developed using hyperspectral optical satellite remote sensing data, in collaboration with the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA).

Presentation title: From research to applications: advances in satellite radar and hyperspectral optical remote sensing for agriculture

Samantha Wisely

Dr. Samantha Wisely is a Professor of Wildlife Ecology and the Director of the Cervidae Health Research Initiative at the University of Florida, Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences. Her research investigates how global change alters wildlife disease dynamics and designs innovative wildlife pathogen surveillance systems. Using a combination of field and laboratory techniques, she uses a One Health approach to study disease systems and their impacts on threatened and endangered species, at the livestock/wildlife interface, and for wildlife diseases that are threats to human health. Dr. Wisely manages an annual research portfolio of more than $2 million, and she has won multiple honors including a UF Provost Research Fellowship, a national LEAD21 Land Grant University Leadership Fellowship, and most recently a Fulbright Scholarship to the Republic of Serbia. Dr. Wisely received her Ph.D. in Zoology and Physiology from the University of Wyoming, a M.Sc. in Wildlife Biology from Humboldt State University and a B.A. from University of California at San Diego.

Presentation title: Designing innovative wildlife surveillance systems for emerging pathogens of veterinary and medical importance in a changing world

Cesare Gargioli

Dr. Cesare Gargioli has been working as an Associate Professor of Applied Biology at the Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, since 2022. He has published 89 articles in peer-reviewed journals (50 as first or last/corresponding author), including several in high-impact journals such as Nature Medicine, EMBO Molecular Medicine, and Biomaterials. His total H-index is 30 (according to SCOPUS).

Dr. Gargioli directs the Laboratory of Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, focusing on tissue regeneration and skeletal muscle reconstruction through the use of biomimetic matrices and novel 3D printing technologies. Additionally, since 2020, he has been working in the field of cultivated meat, driven by the global need for sustainable meat production. His research addresses challenges related to resource depletion, animal welfare, and ecological impact. He aims to usher in a new era of cultured meat by focusing on the development of structured cultured meat using 3D bioprinting and stem cell biotechnology.

Presentation title: 3D bioprinting for structured culture meat

Miljan Cvetković

Miljan Cvetković is currently a full professor at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Banja Luka. It deals with agronomic and physiological aspects of modern production of fruits. He served as the director of the Institute for Viticulture and Winemaking in Niš. During his work in Serbia, he was engaged as a national consultant for fruit production within the FAO project (2002 - 2004). At the Faculty of Agriculture, he held the position of vice dean for scientific research and international cooperation. He is currently the head of the Institute of Horticulture. He was the institutional coordinator of FP7, TEMPUS and ERASMUS+ projects at the University of Banja Luka. He was a coordinator and participant in several domestic projects. As a Fulbright scholarship, he spent eight months at Michigan State University and the University of Oregon. As part of FAO and World Bank projects, he stayed in Georgia and India as a consultant for fruit production. He maintains intensive collaboration with fruit producers to overcome the challenges they face in their regular production. He published many scientific and professional books and papers. Miljan is a member of ISHS.

Presentation title: Morphometric characteristics and valorisation of Prunus domestica L. stones

Koray Kırıkçı

Koray Kırıkçı is an Associate Professor in the Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, at Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, Türkiye. He received his PhD degree from Ondokuz Mayıs University (Samsun) in 2017, and during this period did doctoral research at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), Autonomous University of Barcelona, supported by a scholarship from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) of Türkiye. Kırıkçı specializes in population genetics, and his research focuses on improving reproductive efficiency and molecular characterization in small ruminants. Kırıkçı has contributed to the introduction of three new local sheep breeds (Artlı, Of and Çepni) into the native sheep gene resources of Türkiye by molecular and morphological characterization under a Project supported by TAGEM (General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies). Kırıkçı also led a TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye)-funded project that provided a comprehensive characterization of the genetic basis of litter size in prolifc and non-prolific sheep breeds. Kırıkçı is currently working on the unraveling the genetic architecture of reproductive and growth traits in Kazakh, Turkish, and Uzbek sheep breeds. He actively supervises master’s and PhD students at both national and international levels.

Presentation title: Genetic Strategies for Reproductive Efficiency: Enhancing Twinning Rates in sheep

Stojmir Stojanovski

Stojmir Stojanovski is a Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the PSI Hydrobiological Institute, where he has been actively engaged in research since 1996 and currently serves as Head of the Department of Fish Pathology. Professor Stojanovski is a recognized expert in fish pathology, aquatic parasitology, and limnology, with particular emphasis on parasite biodiversity, host–parasite interactions, fish health assessment, and ecological monitoring of ancient lake ecosystems. His research activities are strongly linked to the conservation and sustainable management of Europe’s oldest lakes, especially Lakes Ohrid and Prespa, integrating classical parasitology with molecular, histopathological, and ecological approaches. He has coordinated and participated in more than 40 national, bilateral, and international research projects, including EU-funded initiatives (GEF/World Bank, UNDP, FAO, CEI) and numerous COST Actions addressing aquatic animal health, antimicrobial resistance, food safety, animal welfare, freshwater biodiversity, and biosecurity. He has served as a member of Horizon 2020 program committees and currently contributes as an expert to national and European advisory bodies in food safety and biological hazards. In parallel with his research activity, Professor Stojanovski has extensive teaching experience as Associate Professor at several higher education institutions in North Macedonia.

Presentation title: Uncovering gyrodactylus diversity and sustainable control strategies within the bioaqua framework

Marcelo Cevallos Vallejos

Dr. C. Marcelo Cevallos Vallejos is a researcher and university professor at the Universidad Técnica del Norte in Ecuador. His research has focused on the fields of sustainable agriculture, biotechnology, plant breeding, and university management. His recent work has been oriented toward the use of mulching for Andean crops, selection processes in red popcorn-type maize cultivation, and the evaluation of resistance to Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands in avocado rootstocks.

He is currently involved in several research projects funded by institutional and external sources. In the field of university management, he has held various positions: from September 2011 to April 2017, he served as Acting President of Ecuador’s Higher Education Council; he also served as Rector of the Universidad Técnica del Norte (UTN) from May 2017 to June 2022. He currently serves as Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Engineering at UTN.

Dr. Cevallos was awarded a scholarship by the Ecuadorian Institute of Educational Credit and Scholarships to pursue Agronomy studies in Cuba, where he graduated with distinction, receiving both the “Gold Degree” and “Best Graduate” honors. He obtained his master’s degree in plant biology from the Universidad de La Habana and his Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences from the Universidad Agraria de La Habana.

Presentation title: Plastic mulching strategies for improving Andean crop production in Ecuador

Sigurd Sannan

Dr. Sigurd Sannan is a Research Scientist at SINTEF Energy Research in Norway. His recent research has focused on climate control and energy efficiency in greenhouses, advanced drying techniques for residual biomass, and industrial applications of heat pump technologies. He currently serves as project manager for several projects funded by the European Commission and the Research Council of Norway, and previously served as SINTEF project leader for ClimaGreen, a collaborative project on energy-efficient greenhouse climate control coordinated by USAMV and funded by the Norway Grants. He has received several prestigious awards and fellowships, including a U.S.-Norway Fulbright grant, a University of California Regents Fellowship, fellowships from the Research Council of Norway, and a fellowship from the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. Dr. Sannan received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his M.Sc. in Physics from the University of Oslo, Norway.

Presentation title: Developments in Heat Pump Technologies

Balotă Octavian Laurențiu

Dr. Balotă Octavian Laurențiu is an academic and researcher with an extensive educational background, holding degrees from the Technical University of Construction Bucharest (Geodesy, 1981), University of Bucharest (Mathematics and Informatics, 1988; Biochemistry, 2025), and Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse (Remote Sensing, 1992). In 2010, he earned his PhD specializing in 3D modeling using photogrammetric techniques.

His professional career began at the National Institute for Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography (1984–1995). Notably, during 1994–1995, he led the Romanian World Bank team in implementing the pilot project for the national Cadastral Land Book system, which formed the legal basis for Romania's Cadastral and Public Notary laws. Internationally, he represented Romania at UN/OOSA (2001–2002) to promote global GNSS technologies.

Currently, Dr. Balotă is the General Manager and Senior Researcher at TEHNOGIS GRUP SRL, specializing in GIS, mapping, photogrammetry, and 3D modeling. Since 2010, he has also taught Geodesy and Photogrammetry at USAMV Bucharest. His research focuses on developing software solutions to optimize productivity in topography and LiDAR (including 3DTools and LidarMap), supported by over 45 published scientific papers. Today, he serves as an expert evaluator for the Horizon EU Research Program and is the President of the Photogrammetry Commission of the Romanian Society of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry.

Presentation title: LidarMap, A New Stereo-based approach for fast 3D feature extraction from Lidar data

Dr. Óscar Vicente

Dr. Óscar Vicente is a researcher and professor at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), affiliated with the Institute for the Conservation and Improvement of Valencian Agrodiversity (COMAV). His work focuses on plant biology, environmental stress tolerance, and crop adaptation to drought and salinity, with extensive contributions to agricultural and ecological research. Dr. Vicente has authored numerous scientific publications on plant stress physiology and sustainable agriculture.

Presentation title: “New” Crops to Adapt Mediterranean Agriculture to the current climate emergency

Gabriela Tenea

Dr. Tenea is a professor-researcher at the Universidad Técnica del Norte (UTN), Ecuador, and Director of the Research Group on Development and Innovation in Food and Nutraceuticals (GIDIBAN-FICAYA). She earned her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Bucharest and Ghent University, Belgium, under a Marie Curie Fellowship. She completed postdoctoral training in Transgenesis at Purdue University, USA (Fulbright Fellowship), and in Transcriptomics at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Belgium.

Since joining UTN in 2014 through the Prometeo Program funded by SENESCYT, her research has focused on the microbiota associated with native Ecuadorian Amazonian fruits, particularly lactic acid bacteria with probiotic and antimicrobial potential. Her work integrates biotechnology, microbiology, and nutraceutical development to obtain high-value bioactive compounds from microorganisms.

In 2022, she obtained her Habilitation degree in Biotechnology at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, qualifying her to supervise doctoral research. She has published over 100 scientific articles, books, and book chapters, held two invention patents, and actively participates in international scientific collaborations and conferences.

Presentation title: Metagenomics across ecuadorian crops: microbial diversity, food quality and antimicrobial opportunities