Invited speakers

Nathalie de Noblet-Ducoudré

deNoblet_Photo-sept2022

Nathalie de Noblet-Ducoudré is a CEA senior research scientist in Bio-Climatology. She has a long experience in the development of land models within global climate models. She has demonstrated in her papers how land cover and land uses can influence climate at both short and long time scales, and at various spatial scales from local to global. She was lead author in the special IPCC report on Land and Climate that was published in august 2019 (https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/). Over the past 10 years she has gained some expertise in the development of climate services for agriculture in France, in tight collaboration with scientists from INRAE, practitioners from chambers of agriculture in France, practitioners from agricultural technical institutes such as Arvalis and Terre Inovia, and insurance companies such as Groupama and Axa Climate. She has co-developed the GREC francilien (expert group on climate change and the ecological transition in Ile-de-France; https://grec-idf.eu/) that she co-coordinates with Robert Vautard (CNRS-IPSL) and Luc Abbadie (Professor at Sorbonne University). She is responsible for the research branch of the interdisciplinary object AllCAN (Alliance for Climate Action Now, https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/objets-interdisciplinaires/alliance-climate-action-now) of Paris-Saclay University, which aims is to develop tight collaborations with local practitioners and help them start their transition towards adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. She co-coordinates some research within the PEPR TRACCS on climate services (https://climeri-france.fr/pepr-traccs/).


Graeme Hammer

© Graeme Hammer

Graeme Hammer is a Professor in Crop Science in the Centre for Crop Science (CCS) in the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), which is a research institute of The University of Queensland, Australia. Graeme conducts research on the ecophysiology and genetics of complex adaptive traits in field crops with a focus on water productivity in cereals, especially sorghum.  His research underpins the development of mathematical models of crop growth, development and yield that enable simulation of consequences of genetic and management manipulation of crops in specific target environments.  He has played a leading role in the design and on-going development of the APSIM crop modelling platform. He is a Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture, a Fellow of the Australian Agriculture Institute, and was awarded the Australian Medal for Agricultural Science (2013) and Farrer Memorial Medal (2012).


Laura Mayor

@ Laura Mayor

Laura Mayor is the Global Sorghum Breeding Lead for Corteva Agrisciences. She earned a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding from Iowa State University, an MS in Genetics, and BS in Agronomy from the University of Rosario in Argentina. She joined Pioneer as a Molecular Breeding Scientist in maize in 2008, and in 2011 she transitioned to sorghum to establish and deploy a molecular breeding strategy for this crop. In 2013, she became the sorghum breeder at the Manhattan, Kansas research center. The program focused on developing hybrids for the eastern Kansas area using enabling technologies to accelerate genetic gain. In 2016, her responsibilities were extended to Evaluation Zone lead for eastern Kansas and the US High Plains sorghum markets, including Kansas and the Texas panhandle. In 2020, she began her current role focused on delivering elite sorghum hybrids to growers around the globe. She was named Corteva Laureate in 2021 as one of the company's singular experts. In addition, she was elected Division Chair for the Crop Breeding and Genetics (C1), Crop Science Society of America. Dr. Mayor is also Chair of the 2022 Sorghum Improvement Conference of North America (SICNA) meeting.


Valérie Brochet

© Valérie Brochet

An agricultural engineer by training, Valérie Brochet specialized in economics applied to the agricultural sector at McGill University, Montreal (Canada). After more than 10 years at the service of the renewal of generations of farmers in agricultural trade-unionism, she held the position of General Secretary of the Maize and Sorghum and Oleaginous Plants sections of SEMAE, the French seed interprofession, during two years. Today she is delegate of Sorghum-ID, an association which aims to develop the European sorghum sectors, and, since 2019, she has been leading the National Federation of Maize and Sorghum Seeds Production, and coordinates promotion programs, research and development programs, economics analyses and regulatory activities relating to seed production.

 


Boris Parent

© Boris Parent

Boris Parent is ecophysiologist and modeller at LEPSE-INRAE, Montpellier, France, where he works on the genetic variability of drought and temperature responses in cereals. After completing a PhD at INRAE in the ecophysiology of rice responses to drought and temperature, he joined ACPFG, an applied-research institute in Adelaide (Australia), as a wheat physiologist for four years, before returning to INRAE. His research activities, at the interface between ecophysiology, phenomics and crop modeling, aim at improving varieties for future drier and warmer climates. With colleagues, he is developping a conceptual framework in order to predict the impact of the genetic diversity of adaptive traits at large scale. As a part of this, they are developing process-scale models coupled based on phenotyping and develop crop models,analyzing the genetic diversity of model parameter values in high throughput phenotyping platform, and  using such models to predict the adaptive values of different combinations of traits (ideotypes) for current and future environmental scenarios.


David Pot

© David Pot

David Pot is a plant geneticist at CIRAD (the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development). He earned a PhD in Forest tree Genetics and Breeding at INRAE. After a short postdoctoral position on drosophila genetics at UC Davis (USA) he returned to plants at CIRAD in 2004 and began working on sorghum in 2009. His main research interests relate to the identification of the genetic factors controlling the variability of key agronomic traits and the optimization of plant breeding strategies. To achieve these goals, he develops research activities spanning from population genomics (from domestication to selection) to plant breeding scheme optimization. He is leading projects focused on sorghum biomass and grain production that mobilize large multidisciplinary networks (starting from social sciences to gene functional validation). At the genetics and breeding levels, in collaboration with ecophysiologists and end-product scientists, he contributed to the definition of plant ideotypes to target for different value chains and environmental contexts. He participated in the development and characterization of innovative crossing designs aimed at simultaneously supporting gene discovery and breeding efforts. He develops these activities with the belief that collaborative networks between public and private sectors on one hand and between North and South partners on the other hand are key to providing relevant innovations and applied solutions for the different stakeholders along the sorghum value chain. Since 2022, he has served as the sorghum value chain lead at CIRAD.


Kwaku Gyebi Duodu

© Kwaku Gyebi Duodu

Kwaku Gyebi Duodu is Professor of Food Science and Head of the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Food Chemistry and Food Engineering. His research focuses on the health-promoting properties of African grains and their foods and he investigates the metabolomic profiling, chemistry and bioactivity of phenolic compounds. He also has research interest in nutritional aspects of African grain-based foods with focus on mineral bioaccessibility and protein quality. Gyebi co-edited the second edition of Sorghum and Millets: Chemistry, Technology and Nutritional Attributes. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Cereal Science and the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.


Monia Caramma

© Monia Caramma

Monia Caramma is a Sustainable Food Researcher with over 20 years of experience. She started studying ancient grains with and without gluten in 2000, and in 2015 she devised the milling technique to be used to preserve the nutritional properties of white corn and sorghum.
In 2017 Monia invented the technique of their gelatinization and processing to obtain two types of dry pasta, one 100% white corn and 100% sorghum, that stay firm after cooking and do not contain any additives, emulsifiers, binders. Vice President of Sorghum United, an organization focused on creating awareness on the role of sorghum and millets in climate-smart agriculture and nutritional value for food security, nutrition, and poverty eradication, Monia also cooperates with various companies and organizations worldwide. She is also member of the Steering Committee of Sorghum-ID, a European interprofessional Organisation for sorghum valorisation.
Columnist, writer, Monia focuses on popularizing the relationship between food and well-being, and on increasing the awareness about the effects of processed foods on human health trough public speaking engagements and on social media. She also trains doctors, dieticians, nutritionists, and health and wellness professionals in Europe and abroad. She creates healthy foods based on sustainable agriculture, low carbon emissions, and fair trade and was named by Forbes as one of the 100 most influential women of Italy in 2021.
"Ancient and Modern Cereals, why knowing the variety of the flour you eat can save your life" is her first book, in Italian language, published in 2021 by Mind. Her second book: "The truth, please, about food: a guide to alimentary survival", also in Italian, was released by Mind in early 2023 and achieved Amazon’s “most interesting novelty” immediately after being available for pre-order and for several weeks after its release.
Monia’s articles are published internationally by Journal of Food and Nutritional disorders and in Italy by various technical and scientific magazines such as Tecniche molitorie, L'altra medicina, Professional Pasta, and others.


Earl Roemer

© Earl Roemer

Earl Roemer is a fourth-generation agricultural producer and businessman from West Central Kansas with backgrounds in both animal and plant science. Earl has held state and national leadership roles in both the State of Kansas and National Sorghum Industry Organizations. Earl is the Founder and President of Nu Life Market. This company focuses on the production, milling, and processing of specific sorghum grains containing defined quality and chemistry characteristics for applications in the food and beverage industries. The sorghum grains utilized by Nu Life Market are produced under an extremely strict identity preservation and regenerative production management system by their team of growers to reduce carbon and other green house gases being released into the atmosphere and utilize less of our natural resources in the production of the sorghum grains milled by this food company.


James Schnable

© James Schnable

Prof. James Schnable's academic research focuses on the genomics and genetics of corn and sorghum and understanding how crop plants respond to previously unseen environments. In his nine years at the university of Nebraska he has participated in, assembled, and lead diverse teams of agronomists, food scientists, statisticians, computer scientists, and engineers to develop and deploy advanced phenotyping technologies and quantitative genetic methods adapted to the unique properties of high throughput phenotyping data, securing over $40M in funding from a wide range of government agencies and organizations including the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foundation for Food and Agricultural research, for-profit companies and NGOs and publishing over 100 peer reviewed papers. Dr. Schnable has founded three startups in the fields of bioinformatics, climate-resilient agriculture, and precision agronomy, raised over $7 million in funding from angel and venture investors. Dr. Schnable has served as a consultant to major seed and technologies companies and recently returned to the University of Nebraska after a leave of absence to work at X, a division of Google that develops and implements “moonshot” technologies to make the world a radically better place.


Dilys S. MacCarthy

© Dilys MacCarthy

Dr. Dilys S. MacCarthy is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ghana and a former Head of Soil & Irrigation Research Centre at the University. Her background is Plant Nutrition, Soil Fertility and Agronomy. She teaches Agricultural Systems Simulation and Modelling at the under-graduate and postgraduate levels at the University. Her research focusses on integrated nutrient management in cereals under smallholder systems. She is also involved in climate change risk and impact assessment in smallholder systems in West Africa and leads the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) West African team. She was a member of the scientific committee that planned iCROPM 2020 that was held in Montpellier, France. She serves as editorial board member for three peer review journals namely; Frontiers in Food Systems, Forest and Agricultural Meteorology and CABI Agriculture and Biosciences.