Prof. Yaroslav Blume is the Director of the Institute of Food Biotechnology and Genomics (from 2008), and Head of Department of Genomics and Molecular Biotechnology. Prof. Yaroslav Blume completed his M.S. (Biochemistry) from Kyiv State University in 1978, Ph.D. (1982), and Dr. Sci. (Dr. Hab.) (1988). He is a Full Member of the Natl. Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2006). His scientific career started from Kyiv University which continued in Natl. Academy of Sci., and worked for a long time in the Institute of Cell Biology and Genetic Engineering (1989-2008). He was a visiting scientist at the University of Freiburg (1997), Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Ottawa (1998), John Innes Center, Norwich (1998-2003), and Antwerpen University (2005-2006). He was an invited professor at Schiller University, Jena (2001). His research activity is aimed at cell biology, genomics and biotechnology of plant cytoskeleton and cell signalling as well as a development of new tools for molecular biotechnology, creation of plants with novel traits, especially for biofuel production. Prof. Blume authored and co-authored more than 250 research publications, 11 patent inventions and 9 plant varieties. He received The State Prize of Ukraine in 2011, and the Prize of Natl. Academy of Sci. in Genetics in 2002.

Dr. Francesco Paolocci is a Senior Researcher at the Italian National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources (IBBR), Division of Perugia. Since his graduation in 1989, the vast majority of Francesco’s research activity has been involved with the CNR. Dr. Paolocci’s interests and activities span from fungal genetics and genomics to plant genomics and biotechnology. His current main interests include the identification and functional characterization of structural and regulatory genes of secondary metabolites in legumes, with specific emphasis on forage legumes. He has published more than 60 papers in indexed international journals and books, and his research activity has been bestowed with national and international prizes.

Dr. Youssef Rouphael completed his PhD in Horticulture from Tuscia University (Italy). He then continued as a Post-Doc fellow at the same University for 5 years. Later he got appointed as the Assistant Professor at Lebanese University. He has been affiliated with University Federico II Naples since 2014, where he is currently working as an Associate Professor. Prof. Rouphael specializes in greenhouse crops with emphasis on improvement of fruit quality of vegetable crops through pre-harvest factors, plant nutrition, water and irrigation management, soilless production of vegetables and ornamentals, role of grafting, beneficial micro-organisms, plants biostimulants in horticultural plants and novel specialty crops such as microgreens and edible flowers.

Dr. K. Dmytruk is the Deputy Director of Science at the Institute of Cell Biology, NAS of Ukraine (Lviv, Ukraine), and the Head of Laboratory of Metabolic Engineering. He graduated from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. in (M.S. Genetics and Biotechnology) 1999, followed by Ph.D. (2006) and Dr. Sci. (Dr. Hab.) (2016). He also serves as a visiting scientist at Danish Technological University, Ruhr-University, Institute for Microbial and Biochemical Technology, Forest products laboratory (USDA), University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and Chalmers University of Technology. His research activities are focused on metabolic engineering of microorganisms, biotechnology, development of new tools for molecular biotechnology of yeast.

Dr. Diacono Manangia is a permanent Researcher at CREA, Agriculture and Environment Research center. Dr. Diacono obtained degree in Agriculture Science with highest grade and further has been awarded a degree of PhD in “Mediterranean Agronomy”, University of Bari. Dr. Diacono’s expertise are in organic agriculture in mid/long-term field trials and assessing the effects of farming practices on soil fertility, nitrogen balances and crop yields. Dr. Diacono has been involved in Organic and agro-ecological techniques and conversation farming to allow sustainable soil management and resource use in cropping systems, leading to soil fertility improvement, C sequestration and greenhouse gases mitigation. Dr. Diacono’s research activities are being focused on the sustainable recycling of wastes from the agriculture and agro-industry via innovative techniques and organic matter improvement in the soil by using different fertilizers and amendments.

Dr. José L. S. Pereira, is a Professor of Agricultural Science in the Agrarian School at Polytechnic Institute of Viseu and a Researcher in the Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environment and Biological Sciences at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Portugal. He received his Habilitation and Ph.D. in Agricultural Science from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Portugal. For the past 20 years, his research program investigates the mechanisms and mitigation techniques for reducing ammonia, nitric oxide, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane emissions from agriculture.

Dr Raal has graduated as a pharmacist at the University of Tartu (Estonia), and has completed his PhD at the Institute of Chemistry and Pharmacy of Leningrad (Soviet Union). He is the Head of the Institute of Pharmacy, University of Tartu,and the full-time Professor of Pharmacognosy. He has published 80 scientific papers in international scientific journals indexed by the Web of Science, Scopus and other databases, more than 130 conference abstracts, as well as 22 textbooks, monographs, handbooks and popular-scientific books such as ‘Pharmacognosy’ and ‘Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants of the World’ (in Estonian).

Prof. Roman A. Volkov is Head of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University since 2005.; He did M.S. (Biochemistry) from Chernivtsi State University (1983), Ph.D. from Chernivtsi, Ukraine, and Moscow, Russia (1988), Dr. Sci. from Chernivtsi, Ukraine (1996, and Dr. Hab. From Tübingen, Germany, (2004). He was a visiting scientist at the University of Vienna (1993), Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben (1995), University of Tübingen (1996-2005, including Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship) and invited professor at the University of Presov (2015). His research interests include molecular evolution and genomics, especially polyploidy, ribosomal RNA genes and nucleolar dominance), molecular markers, biodiversity and phylogeography as well as molecular biology and biochemistry of abiotic stress and adaptation. He is the author and co-author of about 300 research publications and 4 patent inventions.

Dr. Weria Weisany obtained an M.S. in Agriculture Science from Agronomy University of Kurdistan,Erbil, Iraq, and a Ph.D. degree in Agronomy from Agroecology University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran. His skills and expertise mainly lie in Subsidiary agriculture, Crop ecology, Crop Physiology, Organic farming, plants ecology, Seed technology and Nanotechnology in Agriculture. Dr. Weisanyearned first rank among all students and graduates of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kurdistan University, in 2014.

Dr. Yemets is the Head of the Department of Cell Biology and Biotechnology at the Institute of Food Biotechnology and Genomics (Kiev, Ukraine). She graduated from Kiev State University (M.S., Cell Biology and Genetic Engineering), did Ph.D. (Cell Biology), Dr. Sci. (Dr. Hab., Cell Biology). She became the Professor of Biotechnology, and became Associated Member of the Natl. Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Plant Biotechnology). She was a visiting scientist at the University of Freiburg; John Innes Center, Norwich; Antwerpen University; invited scientist at F. Schiller University, Jena; Syngenta International Research Centre, Jealott’s Hill. Her research is focused on cell biology, plant cytoskeleton, plant genomics, biotechnology, creation of plants with novel traits.

D.N. Das is a Professor of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) since 2011. With strong expertise in Fish & fisheries sciences, Aquaculture, Aquatic ecology & integrated farming. Prof. D.N. Das has penned Research articles: 105 [Journal articles: (National: 70 & International: 35), Popular articles: 21; Bulletin: 03 and Book published: 05.

Vittorio Farina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences at the Università degli Studi di Palermo. He did PhD in ‘Crop systems and regulatory mechanisms of fruit quality’. His research activities primarily cover: tropical and subtropical horticulture; technology for assessment of chemical-physical, sensory and nutritional fruit attributes; process implications on quality of fresh and fresh-cut fruits. He is the author of more than 100 scientific papers and technical reports. The teaching activities are related to ‘Tropical and Subtropical Horticulture’, ‘Urban Arboriculture’ and ‘Fruit and plant-based foods’.