Invited Speakers

Full professor at the University of Milan (Italy) Research topics: breeding for fruit quality and disease resistance on tree fruit crops. Major ongoing (or terminated) research projects: National: MAS.PES, apricot and fruit breeding by traditional and genomic approaches. International: SharCo, Sharca cointenment in Europe; Drupomics, peach genome sequencing; Fruit Breedomics, development of genomic tools in fruit breeding; MARS, Marker Assisted Resistance to Sharka.

CEO Agromillora Group. Agronomist and MBA. Since 1992 working in Agromillora. Actively involved in the international expansion of the company from the beginning as well as in the promotion of new agronomic models in different species based on super high density (SHD). Currently Agromillora is a leading multinational company in the nursery sector in permanent crops, with 10 subsidiaries in 9 different countries.

Professor and Endowed chair of Tree Fruit Physiology and Management at the Department of Horticulture at Washington State University, USA. He received his MS degree in Horticulture in 1990 and his Ph.D. degree in Pomology in 1996 from the University of Bologna, Italy. From 2000 to 2013, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna. He led the pear breeding program, patented four new pear cultivars, and worked on training systems and orchard management. He joined Washington State University in 2013 as an Associate Professor and was promoted to full Professor in 2018. His research program aims to develop advanced orchard management practices to improve yield, fruit quality in apple, pear, and cherry. His specialization areas are orchard planting systems, rootstocks, pruning and training, pollination, precision crop load management, netting, and efficient use of light interception in the orchard.

Researcher in Plant Pathology at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection of the Italian National Research Council. She started her research in plant pathology by focusing on the detection and characterization of olive and citrus-infecting viruses, she contributed to extend the knowledge on the viruses infecting this crops, to develop protocols for virus detection and for sanitation. During the past seven years, she extended her scientific interest to the development of several research programs on Xylella fastidiosa, at national and European level. She currently coordinates the H2020 EU project XF-ACTORS “Xylella Fastidiosa Active Containment Through a multidisciplinary- Oriented Research Strategy” (2016-2021).

M.Sc. from Damascus University, Syria (1998); Diploma in Plant Protection from CIHEAM- MAIB, Bari – Italy, on Integrated Pest Management of Mediterranean Fruit Tree (2000). In 2004 he got his Ph. D. degree in Plant Protection from Bari University, Italy. Soon after, he got a job at CIHEAM- Bari as Responsible of mycology activities in the Division of Integrated Pest Management of Fruit and Vegetable crops. In 2015, he assigned as associated professor at Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-CNR Istituto di Biologia e Patologia Molecolari. Since 2017, he is working for Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as Regional Plant Protection and Production officer in Near East and North Africa Region.