Leaders of Our Conference Tracks
Providing leadership and scholarly oversight across all conference tracks
Meet the Track Chairs
Prof. David Zilberman
Robinson Chair
Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics
UC Berkeley
Prof. Wanda Markotter
Interim Director of Future Africa, One Health Research Chair, and Director of the Centre for Viral Zoonoses
University of Pretoria
Prof. Christopher Barrett
Professor of Applied Economics and Management
Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
Cornell University
Prof. Jill Farrant
Research Chair
Molecular Physiology of Plant Desiccation Tolerance
University of Cape Town
Prof. Isobel Parkin
Principal Research Scientist
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
Department of Plant Agriculture
University of Saskatchewan
Prof. David Edwards
Director
Centre for Applied Bioinformatics
School of Biological Sciences
University of Western Australia
Prof. Hasan Khatib
Vice Chair
Department of Animal & Dairy Sciences
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Dr. Farhad Maleki
Director
Centre for Precision Agriculture
University of Calgary
Prof. Istvan Rajcan
Professor
Department of Plant Agriculture
University of Guelph
Dr. Lingling Jin
Associate Director
CREATE Program in Computational Agriculture
Department of Computer Science
University of Saskatchewan
Prof. Amit Gross
Professor
Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research
Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Prof. Zhihua Jiang
Professor of Genome Biology
Department of Animal Sciences
Washington State University
Dr. Zahra Abbasi
Director, Calgary Sensor Lab
Department of Electrical and Software Engineering
University of Calgary
Prof. Julius van der Werf
Animal Breeding & Genetics
School of Environmental & Rural Science
University of New England
Prof. Benz Kotzen
Professor
School of Design
University of Greenwich
Prof. Dharam Pal Abrol
Professor of Entomology
Faculty of Agriculture
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology
Dr. Yahya Al Naggar
Professor of Insect Ecology
Zoology Department
Tanta University
Dr. Mohamed Shebl
Department of Plant Protection
Faculty of Agriculture
Suez Canal University
Dr. Andrew Barron
Professor
School of Natural Sciences
Macquarie University
Dr. Arshnee Moodley
Professor
Team Lead, Antimicrobial Resistance
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Chair, WOAH AMR Working Group
Dr. Yiannis Ampatzidis
Professor
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Department
Southwest Florida Research and Education Center
University of Florida
Dr. Md Shamim Ahamed
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
University of California, Davis
Dr. Kornsorn Srikulnath
Associate Professor in Genetics
Faculty of Science
Kasetsart University, Bangkok
Dr. Yue Gen Hua
Director
Strategic Research Programme
Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory
National University of Singapore
Dr. Adnan Alrubaye
Assistant Professor of Poultry Science
Department of Poultry Science
University of Arkansas
Dr. Guillaume Lhermie
Director
Simpson Centre
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
University of Calgary
Prof. Beate Conrady
Professor
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences
University of Copenhagen
Prof. Charlie Messina
Director of Crop Transformation Center
University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS)
Dr. Willemijn Appels
Senior Research Chair
Applied Research Chair in Irrigation Science
Lethbridge Polytechnic
Dr. Reza Ovissipour
Assistant Professor in Food Biomanufacturing and Cellular Agriculture
Department of Food Science and Technology
Texas A&M University
Dr. Vahab Khoshdel
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Manitoba
Dr. Christopher Henry
Professor
Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Science
University of Manitoba
Prof. Yuxin Miao
Director
Precision Agriculture Center
Department of Soil, Water, and Climate
University of Minnesota
Dr. Azlan Zahid
Assistant Professor
AgriLife Research and Extension Center
Texas A&M
Dr. Abozar Nasirahmadi
Professor
Digitalisation in Agriculture Engineering
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Dr. Jing Zhou
Assistant Professor
Department of Crop and Soil Science
Oregon State University
Prof. Ittai Herrmann
The Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture
The Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Mahendra Bhandari
Assistant Professor in Digital Agriculture
AgriLife Research and Extension Center
Texas A&M University
Dr. Gaurav Jha
Assistant Professor Precision Agriculture
Department of Agronomy
Kansas State University
Dr. Alakananda Mitra
Assistant Professor
Nebraska Water Center, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Prof. Chusnul Arif
Professor
Faculty of Agricultural Technology
IPB University
Dr. Farhad Ahmadi
McKenzie Fellow
School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences
University of Melbourne
Dr. Mian N. Riaz
Associate Professor and Associate Department Head
Director, Extrusion Technology Program
Department of Food Science and Technology
Texas A&M University
Dr. Ning Xiang
Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science
Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences
University of Alberta
Dr. Shawana Tabassum
Director
Center for Smart Agriculture Technology
Department of Electrical Engineering
The University of Texas at Tyler
Dr. Mohammad Zarei
Assistant Professor in Food Science and Bioprocessing
Department of Nutrition and Food Science
Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Prof. Adrian Unc
Agronomist, Soil scientist, and Environmental Microbiologist
School of Science and the Environment
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Prof. Dina Zilberg
Professor
French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research
Ben-Gurion University
Dr. Elliot Swartz
Senior Scientist
Cultivated Meat
The Good Food Institute (GFI)
Dr. Keshav D. Singh
Research Scientist
Remote Sensing, Digital Phenomics and Smart Farming
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
Dr. Guillermo Martinez-Boggio
Assistant Professor
Department of Animal Science
University of California Davis
Prof. Danilo Demarchi
Professor
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications
Politecnico di Torino
Dr. Isabella Condotta
Assistant Professor
Department of Animal Sciences and Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
University of Illinois
Dr. Abdul Munnaf
Assistant Professor
Agricultural Biosystems Engineering Group
Wageningen University
Dr. Femke van Beek
Assistant Professor
Robotics section, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Eindhoven University of Technology
Dr. Arroyo Cardoso
Assistant Professor, Electronic Instrumentation
Department of Microelectronics
Delft University of Technology
Dr. Sujith Raman
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
University of Twente
Dr. Lirong Xiang
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering
Cornell University
Dr. Siddhartho (Sidd) Paul
Assistant Professor of Geospatial Science
Department of Agronomy
College of Agriculture
Purdue University
Dr. Zhihang Song
Assistant Professor
Controlled Environment Agriculture
Horticulture Department
Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture
University of Georgia
Prof. Ajay Sharda
Co-Director, Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics
Terry Beemer Foundation Chair for Engineering Innovation
Kansas State University
Dr. Shinkyu Park
Principal Investigator of Distributed Robotics and Autonomy Group
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Dr. Aneta A. Ptaszyńska
Associate Professor & Head of BeeLab UMCS
Department of Cell Biology
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS)
Prof. Dimitrios S. Paraforos
Professor of Agricultural Engineering in Special Crop Cultivation
Department of Agricultural Engineering
Hochschule Geisenheim University
Dr. Qingshan Wei
Associate Professor
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
North Carolina State University
Dr. Redmond R. Shamshiri
Assistant Professor of Agricultural Robotics
Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS)
University of Southern Denmark
Dr. Johnny (Liujun) Li
Director of Precision Agriculture and Intelligent Robotics Laboratory
Department of Soil and Water Systems
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
University of Idaho
Dr. Ze Zhu
Research Scientist
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources
College of Agriculture
Purdue University
Dr. Mohsen Yoosefzadeh Najafabadi
Assistant Professor
Department of Plant Agriculture
University of Guelph
Dr. Eduardo Navas Merlo
Research Scientist
Centre for Automation and Robotics
Spanish National Research Council and the Technical University of Madrid
Dr. Wenresti Gallardo
Associate Professor
Department of Marine Science and Fisheries
College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences
Sultan Qaboos University
Dr. Patrícia Nunes-Silva
Researcher Vizlab (X-Reality and GeoInformatics Lab) UNISINOS (Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos)
Prof. Paul B Brown
Professor Forestry & Natural Resources
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources
College of Agriculture.
Purdue University
Prof. George A. Kantor
Research Professor
Associate Director of Education
The Robotics Institute (RI)
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
Dr. Xin (Rex) Sun
Endowed Chair and Director
NDSU Peltier Institute
North Dakota State University
Dr. Lilong Chai
Associate Professor & UGA Aspire Fellow
Department of Poultry Science
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
University of Georgia
Prof. Beatriz Martínez López
Director,
Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance (CADMS)
School of Veterinary Medicine
University of California, Davis
Dr. Emma Borkowski
Assistant Professor
Department of Pathobiology
Ontario Veterinary College
University of Guelph
Dr. Tim McAllister
Principal Research Scientist
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Lethbridge Research and Development Centre
Prof. Wondwossen A. Gebreyes
Director of Global One Health Initiative &
Hazel C. Youngberg Distinguished Professor of molecular epidemiology
The Ohio State University
Prof. Ignacio Ciampitti
Co-director, Institute for Digital and Advanced Agricultural Systems (IDAAS)
Purdue University
Prof. Genhua Niu
Professor of Urban Agriculture
Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center,
Department of Horticultural Sciences
Texas A&M University
Prof. Sami Dridi
Vice President, Board of Directors, Poultry Science Association (PSA)
Poultry Science Department, Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
University of Arkansas
Dr. Konstantinos Karydis
Director, Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CRIS)
College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology
University of California, Riverside
Dr. Rafiq Ahmad
Director of Aquaponics 4.0 Learning Factory
Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering
University of Alberta
Dr. Henry Chau
Research Scientist
Soil Conservation and Land Resilience
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
Dr. Dan Tulpan
Associate Professor
Department of Animal Biosciences
Ontario Agricultural College
University of Guelph
Dr. Dongyi Wang
Assistant Professor
Department of Food Science
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
University of Arkansas
Dr. Guoming Li
Assistant Professor
Department of Poultry Science
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
University of Georgia
Prof. Aitazaz Farooque
Professor & Associate Dean
School of Climate Change and Adaptation
Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation
University of Prince Edward Island
Prof. Yonathan Zohar
Professor and Chair
Department of Marine Biotechnology
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
Prof. Spyros Fountas
Professor in Agricultural Engineering
Department of Natural Resources Management and Agricultural Engineering
Agricultural University of Athens
Prof. José Manuel Yáñez López
Dean
Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences
Universidad de Chile
Dr. Chandra B. Singh
Director
Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Advanced Post-Harvest Technology Centre
Lethbridge Polytech
Dr. Sara Saeedi
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Software Engineering
Schulich School of Engineering
University of Calgary
Dr. Anne Deckert
Assistant Professor
Department of Population Medicine
Ontario Veterinary College
University of Guelph
Dr. Upinder Kaur
Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Purdue University
Dr. Gurjit Randhawa
Assistant Professor
School of Computer Science
University of Guelph
Dr. Trevor Coates
Research Scientist
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
Lethbridge Research and Development Centre
Prof. Hung-Ling (Steve) Liang
Rogers Internet of Things Research Chair
Department of Geomatics Engineering
Schulich School of Engineering
University of Calgary
Dr. Sushil Paudyal
Assistant Professor Dairy Science
Department of Animal Science
Texas A&M University
Dr. Borbala Foris
Assistant Professor of Farm Animal Welfare
Centre for Animal Nutrition and Welfare
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (Vetmeduni)