Invited Speakers

Alexander Hristov (Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, USA)

His main field of research is dairy cow nutrition, specifically improving the efficiency of utilization of dietary nutrients for milk synthesis and reducing nutrient losses and gaseous emissions from dairy operation. He has served as Division Editor for the Ruminant Nutrition Section of the Journal of Animal Science and Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Animal Science. He has led initiatives on GHG mitigation in livestock production with the FO and has acted as an advisor to the EPA and other agencies related to the relationship between livestock production and GHG emissions.

David Wall (TEAGASC, Ireland)

David Wall has the following research Interests: improving the precision of fertiliser advice more soil specific; Predicting soil nitrogen supply through soil N mineralization; Soil phosphorus dynamics and plant and animal P nutrition; Nutrient cycling and sustainability of farming systems; Soil pH and lime –interactions with nutrient efficiency; Organic manure management; Remediating heavy metal contamination in soils and produce and nutrient recommendations for agricultural crops. He is principal investigator on several projects including: Evaluating the role of precision nutrient management in sustainable intensification of grass based dairy farms and Predicting slurry variability using nutrient assessment tools: improving precision of nutrient advice. He is partner of other projects as: Sustainable nitrogen fertiliser use and disaggregated emissions of nitrogen on grassland and arable systems; Measurement and modelling of health impacts arising from the landspreading of biosolids and Soil Quality Assessment and Research.

Michael Lee (Rothamsted, United Kingdom)

Michael is a ruminant nutritionist, Head of Sustainable Agricultural Sciences at North Wyke, and Leader of the Institute Strategic Programme, Soil To Nutrition. He graduated with first class honours in Animal Science from University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1997 and gained a PhD in ruminant nutrition from the University of Aberdeen in 2001; he was awarded a postgraduate certificate for teaching in higher education from Aberystwyth University in 2012. He worked for the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research from 2001-2008, before the merger with Aberystwyth University where he stayed as a principal scientist and senior lecturer in animal nutrition and rumen biochemistry. He moved to the University of Bristol in 2013 as a reader in sustainable livestock systems. In 2015, he took up a joint appointment between Rothamsted Research and the University of Bristol as head of site at North Wyke, and was also promoted to Chair in Sustainable Livestock Systems. He has published more than 190 research articles and papers. He was awarded the Sir John Hammond Memorial Prize in 2015 for services to animal science. In 2016, he was elected Vice President of the European Federation of Animal Science Livestock Farming Systems Commission.

Henning Steinfeld (FAO, Italy)

Henning Steinfeld  is head of the livestock sector analysis and policy branch at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN in Rome, Italy. He has been working on agricultural and livestock policy for the last 15 years, in particular focusing on environmental issues, poverty and public health protection. Prior to that, he has worked in agricultural development project in different African countries. Dr Steinfeld is an agricultural economist and graduated from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany (now Humboldt University).

Jan Lassen (Viking Genetics, Denmark)

Project leader at Viking Genetics, Denmark.

Juan Ku-Vera (University of Yucatan, Mexico)

Laboratory of Climate Change and Livestock Production, Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science,  University of Yucatan,  Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Julián Chará (Centre for Research on Sustainable Agriculture - CIPAV, Colombia)

Julián Chará currently works at CIPAV, Centro para la Investigación en Sistemas Sostenibles de Producción Agropecuaria as Research Director. Julián does research in Silvopastoral Systems and in Environmental Aspects of Livestock Production including its influence on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Water Resources. He also works in the analysis of productive and economic performance of cattle systems under silvopasture. His current project is 'Productive and environmental evaluation of bovine production under intensive silvopastoral systems'. Since October 2014 he also works as coordinador of the Global Network of Silvopastoral Systems.

Marta G. Rivera-Ferre (Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change)

Marta G. Rivera-Ferre, Veterinary Degree in Animal Production, PhD in Animal Science (University of Córdoba) and PhD in Sociology (Autonomous University of Barcelona). She is a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow and coordinates the research line “Sustainable communities, social innovations and territories” within the group “Societies, policies and inclusive communities” and is the director of the Chair Agroecology and Food Systems. With a multidisciplinary profile in the analysis of the society and environment interactions within agri-food systems, she has a particular interest in the way different mental models and discourses co-exist in agricultural research and management. She has worked on the potential of local traditional agri-food knowledge, particularly that of extensive livestock systems, in adaptation to climate change. She has participated as lead author in the UN assessment the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD, 2005-2008) and the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), since 2010.

Rafael Hernando Aguiar Gonzalez (CIBiogás/ITAIPÚ, Brazil)

Engenheiro Ambiental pela Faculdade União Dinâmica das Cataratas (2008). Mestrando em Energia na Agricultura pela UNIOESTE. Tem experiência na área de gerenciamento de projetos inovadores com foco em sustentabilidade, atuando no desenvolvimento de tecnologias aplicadas a gestão do território, prospecção e análise de fontes renováveis de energia. Entre 2014 e 2016 atuou na Gerência do Centro Internacional de Hidroinformática - Centro Categoria 2 da UNESCO, sediado na Fundação Parque Tecnológico Itaipu. Em 2016 assumiu a Diretoria de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico do Centro Internacional de Energias renováveis com Ênfase em Biogás - CIBiogás-ER, que foi criado por uma iniciativa da ITAIPU BINACIONAL, Eletrobras e ONUDI.

Thelma Krug (INPE, Brazil)

Thelma Krug holds a bachelor’s degree in MATHEMATICS - ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY (1975), a master’s degree in Probability and Statistics from the ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY (1977) and PhD in Spatial Statistics from the UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD (1992). She was a lecturer in several courses (Probability and Statistics, Integral and Differential Calculus) at the Engineering School in São Jose dos Campos where she held the following positions: Head of Undergraduate Studies, Coordinator of programs in Technology, Economics and Business Administration and Director of the Engineering School in São José dos Campos until she joined the National Institute of Space Research - INPE in 1982 as a researcher. She pursued her doctoral studies in Spatial Statistics at the University of Sheffield, England, from 1988 to 1992. After returning to the Institute, she became the Head of the Remote Sensing Department and a few years later she took over the Earth Observation General Coordination. She was the National Coordinator of the Latin-American Society of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (SELPER); Coordinator of the Training and Education Department of the Large Scale Experiment of the Biosphere-Atmosphere in the Amazon (LBA) and member of the Brazilian Committee of the Experiment Coordination; Member of the Scientific Committee of the Land Use/Cover Change Project of the IGBP/IHDP (International Geosphere Biosphere Programme/International Human Dimensions Programme), having been a leader of this Program's Focus 2 (Land Use/Cover Change); Coordinator of the Sub-Program for Tropical Forests of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO); member of the Small Satellites Subcommittee of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). She has also held the position of Deputy National Secretary at the Department for Science and Technology Programs and Policies at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and National Secretary at the Department for Climate Change and Environmental Quality with the Ministry of the Environment. More recently, she was appointed International Cooperation Advisor of INPE. She is currently holding a position at the Ministry of the Environment, working as Director of the Department of Policies to Curb Deforestation. She has been the Vice-Chair of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She is a member of the CIFOR’s Board of Trustees and accredited at the panel of experts of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to revise the national greenhouse gas inventories, national reports, biannual reports and REDD+, among others. She has provided technical support to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the past 13 years (until 2015), mainly in topics related to forests, land use, inventories, clean development mechanism for forests and REDD+. She was a member of the Steering Committee of the Emissions Gap Report 2015 of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She is a member of the Editorial Board of ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and of GIS Geo-Informations-Systeme. Ms. Krug has received a number of awards, including the title of Knight, granted by the Ordem do Mérito Cartográfico by the Brazilian Society of Cartography; The Austrich Mission Award from the Geographical Service Department; the high distinction medal - Legião do Mérito, from the Brazilian Academy of Engineering and the Globo 2015 Making a Difference Award in the area of Sustainability.