SPEAKERS

Professor Roberto Tuberosa

Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy

Roberto Tuberosa, Ph.D. in Plant Breeding from the University of Minnesota, teaches Plant Genetics and Plant Biotechnology Applied to Plant Breeding at the University of Bologna. His research focuses on genetics and genomics of durum wheat, barley and maize as related to drought resistance with emphasis on cloning genes and QTLs for root features and other traits, including seed quality. His group assembled the Tetraploid wheat Core Collection (TCC) and a collection of barley mutants (TILLMore). A member of the Wheat Initiative Board and Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America. He organized 15 international congresses and launched the ‘From Seed to Pasta’ congress series. In May 2026 will chair the 4^th International Wheat Congress in Bologna.

José Antonio Jiménez Berni

CSIC Research Scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture of the CSIC in Cordoba, Spain

MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS AT DIFFERENT SCALES.

The objective of «Berni’s» line of research is based on improving the efficiency of agricultural systems through the application of various emerging technologies that allow investigating the interactions between genotype, environment and management in Mediterranean climate crops. His expertise covers multiple crops and agricultural systems (woody crops, horticulture and cereals), technologies (thermal, hyperspectral, LiDAR), scales (ground, airborne and satellite sensors) and applications (irrigation management, plant breeding or crop modeling). His current work is based on developing new digital tools that enable more efficient farm management through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates innovative tools such as phenomics or robotics, crop simulation models, machine learning algorithms and real-time remote sensing technologies.

Elisabetta Mazzucotelli

Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Centre of the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (Italy)

Elisabetta Mazzucotelli (CREA-GB) is a wheat geneticist with over 20 years-experience in cereal adaptation to stress conditions. Her research focuses on assessing germplasm diversity and uncovering the genetic bases of key agronomic traits—including disease resistance, yield components such as grain size and ear fertility, and drought tolerance—with the aim of identifying novel genes or allelic variants for crop improvement. She applies both association and linkage mapping approaches, supported by advanced genomics tools and knowledge. Her work centers primarily on tetraploid wheat, especially wild forms (Triticum dicoccoides) and landraces, which she integrates into pre-breeding programs. EM has actively contributed to major international initiatives in durum wheat genomics, including the development of the durum wheat reference (Platinum) genome and the associated QTLome, the establishment of two foundational germplasm resources—the Tetraploid Global Collection and the Global Durum Panel—as well as the construction of the tetraploid wheat pangenome.

Félix Ortego

"Applied Entomology for Human and Plant Health" at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas (CIB-CSIC)

Félix Ortego is the leader of the group «Applied Entomology for Human and Plant Health» at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas (CIB-CSIC). The research lines of his group are aimed at providing the necessary knowledge and tools for the management of arthropods of agricultural and medical interest, including the participation in the program to monitor the potential evolution of corn borers resistance to Bt-maize in Spain (https://cib.csic.es/research/microbial-plant-biotechnology/applied-entomology-human-and-plant-health).