Daniele Daffonchio is Professor of Bioscience at KAUST, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, since April 2014. Before KAUST, Daffonchio was Professor of Microbial Systems Biotechnology at DeFENS University of Milan, Italy. He got a PhD in Chemistry, Biochemistry and Ecology of Pesticides at the University of Milan in 1993. Research interests are on the microbial ecology and biotechnology of complex ecosystems in conventional and extreme aquatic and terrestrial habitats and of symbiotic systems.

Dennis Ndolo is the Group Leader – Biopesticides at the International Centre for Genetic and Engineering (ICGEB), managing a group that focuses on designing appropriate interventions to promote the use of biopesticides in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programmes. Dennis also previously worked as a Research and Development Officer with Dudutech – a leading international IPM company.

Trained as a biochemist, I did my PhD in Systems Biology in the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid (Spain) and a postdoc at the Microbial Sciences Institute at Yale University (USA). Recently, I have started my own group at the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands). I am interested predictively understanding how the composition and function of microbial communities arises from the interaction between their member species, with the ultimate goal of engineering them for biotechnological purposes.

Professional activities: 2021 – Director, Institute of Plant Protection; 2014 – 2021 Head, Dept. of Entomology; 2011 – Associate Professor, 2007–2010: Assistant professor, 2002–2006 Lecturer, 1999–2002 Ph.D. student at the Dept. of Entomology. Research activity and interests: Reproductive biology of thrips species, ecology of the Thrips tabaci cryptic species complex, identifying resistance mechanisms in white cabbage to T. tabaci, developing horticultural pest management methods.

The main focus of his research is the investigation of various microbial interactions and the application of complex microbial communities in bioenergy generation, agriculture and environmental biotechnology. Gergely Maróti has co-written more than 130 peer-reviewed international publications (H-index: 36, ORCID: 0000-0002-3705-0461) in the fields of microbial biotechnology and molecular microbiology. His main interest is the investigation of interkingdom microbial interactions with special emphasis on natural and synthetic algal-bacterial communities. Beside conducting fundamental research he has strong commitment and ability to transform basic scientific achievements into exploitable products. His research team combines the most recent high-throughput omics approaches with traditional microbiology and molecular biology ways as well as with cutting-edge bioinformatic analyses including read-based and genome-centric metagenome invetigations.

Dr. Jovana Grahovac is full professor in the field of Biotechnology at the Faculty of Technology Novi Sad and Deputy Head of the Department of Biotechnology. Her scientific work is focused on the development and scale-up of various bioprocesses and the principles of circular economy implementation in biotechnological production. She is also coordinator of the research group for the intensification of biotechnological production which is directed towards the development of bioprocess solutions for the production of bioactive compounds intended for use in agriculture as biofertilizers, biocontrol agents, phyto-stimulators and soil quality boosters.