2026 Keynote speakers

Keynote speakers

Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Achim Dobermann, Chief Scientist, International Fertilizer Association (IFA).

As Chief Scientist, Achim provides strategic scientific advice to IFA and its members on promoting responsible plant nutrition and enhancing nutrient stewardship worldwide. He served as Director & CEO of Rothamsted Research in the UK (2014-2019), Deputy Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, 2008-2014), Professor of Soil Science and Nutrient Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA (2000-2007), and as a Soil Nutrient Specialist at IRRI (1992-2000). He received his MSc in Tropical Agriculture and PhD in Soil Science from the University of Leipzig in Germany. Dr. Dobermann has over 35 years of field experience working in every region of the world on science and technology for sustainable farming, with particular emphasis on soil science, plant nutrition and agronomy. He has published on a wide range of agricultural issues and serves on the boards of iSDA.Ltd and Agrimetrics.Ltd, two startups working on data-driven solutions for agronomy and farming, as well as on several scientific advisory bodies worldwide.

Mark Tester, Prof. and Chair, Center of Excellence for Sustainable Food Security, KAUST.

Mariangela Hungria, Researcher, Embrapa.

Julian Schroeder, Distinguished Professor, Torrey Mesa Research Institute Chair in Plant Science.

Julian Schroeder did his PhD research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry with Erwin Neher and was a Feodor von Lynen Humboldt Foundation postdoctoral fellow at UCLA School of Medicine. He received awards, including the Presidential Young Investigator Award (NSF), the ASPB Charles Albert Shull Award (1997), a DFG Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Prize, the Blasker Award in Environmental Science, the ASPB Stephen Hales Prize (2021), an Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Prize (2022), is Churchill Overseas Fellow at Cambridge University (2019-) and with collaborators shared the Cozzarelli Prize from PNAS (2010) and a top 10 breakthrough of the year selected by Science (2009). He has served on several advisory boards, including Co-Director of the Food and Fuel for the 21st Century Center. He was von Humboldt Fellow at the TU Munich and the MPI for Biochemistry, visiting Professor at the ETH Zurich and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the German National Academy of Sciences - Leopoldina and Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science.