Opening Keynote Speaker
Dr. Van Schepler-Luu • International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Dr. Van Schepler-Luu is the head of the Plant Pathology and Host Plant Resistance Group at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. She leads collaborative research efforts with partners from over 20 countries, focusing on rice diseases that pose significant threats to global food security. Her PathoTracer project involves 23 institutions across 20 countries and focuses on the development and application of high-throughput markers for monitoring bacterial blight and blast. She coordinates the International Rice False Smut Consortium (IRFSC), which brings together 25 institutions from 12 countries to address false smut, an increasingly important disease in rice production systems.
Schepler-Luu’s group conducts research on pathogen population dynamics, the identification of disease-resistance genes, and beneficial microbes that enhance rice immunity to biotic stresses. These efforts contribute to improving integrated disease management strategies in rice production
Before joining IRRI, Van led the rice research team at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, where she focused on genome editing and rice-bacterial blight pathogen interactions. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany, where her research concentrated on plant defense mechanisms against fungal pathogens and insect herbivores.
Closing Plenary Panel
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Jan Kreuze • International Potato Center (CIP)
Jan Kreuze received his MSc in plant breeding at Wageningen Agricultural University in 1997, after which he spent half a year as a researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology at Helsinki University, working on the characterization of potato-infecting Streptomyces species and viruses of sweetpotato. He subsequently did his PhD degree in virology at the Institute of Plant Biology of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), characterizing synergistic interactions between viruses of sweetpotato, which he finalized in 2002.
In 2003 he moved to the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru, for a postdoc on generating transgenic resistance to sweet potato virus diseases and has been there ever since in various roles performing research on host-pathogen interactions, transgenic plants (both artificial and natural) and in more recent years viral diagnostics and metagenomics. Currently, he is heading the department for Regenerative Agriculture at CIP, the plant health and mycotoxin management area of work in the CGIAR Sustainable Farming Science Program, is an adjunct professor at the University of Helsinki, is an editor at the
Journal Plant Pathology and member of the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses. He has published over 100 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and numerous book chapters.
Dr. Mamta Sharma • International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Dr. Mamta Sharma is a distinguished agricultural scientist with over 20 years of experience in Plant Pathology. Currently leading Legumes Pathology and Climate Change Research for Crop Protection at ICRISAT, contributing to both the Asia and Africa regions. She has contributed to the development of 30+ disease-resistant chickpea and pigeonpea varieties through the strategic use of host-plant resistance. As the lead of the Centre of Excellence on Climate Change Research for Plant Protection under the National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change, she has contributed to national policy briefs. She has built strong international collaborations across Asia, Europe, the UK, Australia, and the USA. With over 230 publications and mentorship of 45+ scholars, her work has earned awards such as India Today Women Scientist (2018), Doreen Margaret Mashler Award, Partnership Award for Climate Change Research, and Exceptional Scientific Articles. Serving as an Editorial board member and Editor of several peer-reviewed journals.
She has significantly promoted climate-smart production technologies to smallholder farmers in rainfed rice fallows under the National Food Security Mission in India. Also, leading the Chickpea Mission project, where she is phenotyping over 5,000 chickpea germplasm accessions for important diseases. Her other milestones include the first whole-genome sequencing of chickpea and pigeonpea wilt pathogens and the development of a DArT platform for pathogen genotyping and the use of AI for crop stress monitoring.
