What’s New
- 2025 March 14 – – – We have released an overview of the IHC2026 registration. Please check the linked page.
- 2025 March 10 – – – My 3-Minute Horticultural Thesis (3MHT) competition page is now open.
- 2025 February 28 – – – A symposium sponsor application form has been added to The SPONSOR page.
- 2025 January 23 – – – The Symposia page is now open.
- 2024 December 06 – – – The four speakers for the plenary lectures have been announced.
- 2024 January 18 – – – Sponsor application form is now open.
Important Dates
Website Opened
2022 Aug 5
AHC2023
2023 Aug 28-31
Annoucement
for Detail Information
2025 spring
IHC2026 in Kyoto
2026 Aug 23-28
Dr. Erin Rosskopf has been working for over 25 years on alternatives to methyl bromide leading research on a series of biological solutions (bio-herbicides, vegetable grafting, biofumigation, soil solarization, and anaerobic soil disinfestation) meant to manage weeds and other soilborne pests and pathogens. She has worked closely with industry representatives and vegetable and in-ground ornamental producers assessing the efficacy and feasibility of alternatives to MeBr. Currently she leads research on anaerobic soil disinfestation for vegetable and small berry production systems in the southeast of the US, evaluating its efficacy against soilborne pests. 
Dr. Takahashi completed his Master’s degree in Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology at the University of Tokyo in 2014. The same year, he joined the NARO Institute of Vegetable and Floriculture Science as a researcher, focusing on broccoli production system. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 2020. From 2021 to 2023, he served as a technical officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, working in both the Secretariat of AFFRC and the Horticultural Crops Division. In 2023, he returned to NARO as a Senior Researcher, and in 2024, he also became an Associate Professor in the Agricultural Science Program at the University of Tsukuba.
Dr. Sato began his career in 1995 at the Vegetable and Tea Research Station, now part of NARO. From 2005 to 2006, he was dispatched to Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Upon returning, he served as a Senior Researcher in NARO’s Planning and Coordination Division until 2008.
Dr. Kazuyoshi Nada is a professor at Mie University, Japan (https://www.bio.mie-u.ac.jp/en/). He served as an editor or a senior editor of the vegetable section for the Horticulture Journal from 2016 to 2025. Additionally, he was as a managing editor of Horticultural Research (Japan) from 2010 to 2013 and a member of the symposium committee for the JSHS from 2014 to 2016. At IHC2026, he is a member of the publication committee.
Dr. Francesco Di Gioia is Associate Professor of Vegetable Crop Science in the Department of Plant Science at The Pennsylvania State University.>br?His integrated research and extension program is focused on improving the sustainability of vegetable crops and their nutritional quality. Working across different crops, growing systems (open field, protected, and controlled environment), and production methods (conventional, organic, soil-based and soilless systems) his research aims at developing and optimizing solutions for improving crop resource use efficiency (water, nutrients, energy), reducing the use of synthetic inputs, and improving the nutritional value of vegetable crops.
Professor
Professor
Tom Bennett has been a group leader at the University of Leeds since 2016. His research focuses on the mechanisms that plants use to optimise the root and shoot growth with respect to prevailing environmental conditions. One key focus of his research is understanding how end-of-flowering and total reproductive effort are coordinated by resource availability and environmental signals. He did his PhD at the University of York (2002-2006) working with Dame Professor Ottoline Leyser, before undertaking post-doctoral research at the University of Utrecht (2007-2010) and University of Cambridge (2010-2016).
Dr. Masahiro Kanaoka got Ph. D. at Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, for genetic and developmental biology of pollen grains in 2006. After post-doc work of stomatal development at Department of biology, University of Washington, he had been working as an Assistant Professor and a tenured Lecturer at Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University. Since 2022, he has been a Professor at Department of Life Science, Prefectural University of Hiroshima.
Hisayo Yamane is a professor at the Laboratory of Pomology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University. Her research focuses on the reproduction biology of fruit trees and phenology characteristics (winter bud dormancy and fruit ripening) of temperate fruit trees especially Rosaceae fruit trees and blueberry. One key focus of her research is understanding genetic and epigenetic regulations on bud dormancy and chilling requirement for dormancy release and bud break. She received her PhD at the Kyoto University (2003) and stayed at Cornell University as postdoc (2003-2004), working with Prof. Jocelyn Rose and studied about Prunus self-incompatibility.
Dr. Avi Sadka has been a senior research scientist at the Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Institute, since 1995, and also serves as an adjunct professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a plant physiologist specializing in citrus and other fruit trees, his research focuses on various aspects of plant growth, development, and responses to external stimuli.
Yulin Fang, professor and vice president of Northwest A&F University. He has successively served as the dean of the College of Enology, the dean of the Institute of Science and Technology Development, , and the vice president of Northwest A&F University. He served as the dean of the Institute of Future Agriculture, the vice director of China Wine Technical Committee and the president of Grape and Wine Branch of Chinese Society for Horticultural Science. Prof. Fang focuses primarily on the areas of wine grape quality regulation, exploration of grape germplasm resources and breeding of new varieties, mechanisms of wine grape development under abiotic stress, grape and wine flavor chemistry, and simplified cultivation technology for wine grape. In recent years, he has made outstanding achievements in the technical innovation chain covering the whole industry, such as precise regulation of wine grape quality, mining of typical flavor quality of varieties in producing areas, abiotic stress physiology and resistance cultivation, grape quality improvement after flood and drought disasters, and standardization of wine grape production. All the research activity has contributed much to the grape and wine industry in the arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China, as well as to the whole national grape industry.
Simone Diego Castellarin is a Professor and the co-Director of the Wine Research Centre at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He has received his Ph.D. (2007) in Agricultural Science and Biotechnology from the University of Udine, Italy. His research focuses on viticulture and grapevine physiology. Particularly, it considers the physiological and molecular aspects that underlay ripening and the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in grapes, and how they are modulated by the environment and viticultural practices. Prof. Castellarin’s laboratory currently uses a multidisciplinary approach that combines field and greenhouse experiments, and targeted and untargeted analyses of metabolites and transcripts. The laboratory has a robust partnership with top scientists in the field of viticulture, grapevine physiology, and applied genomics in North America and Europe. His research is shaped by his agriculture-oriented background and considers those aspects of grapevine physiology that are relevant for improving fruit quality in vineyards.
Jinggui Fang works as a professor and the director of the Fruit Crop Variety Promotion and Seedling Propagation Engineering Center of Jiangsu Province in Nanjing Agricultural University, China. His research mainly focuses on evaluation of grape genetic resources, development of genotype identification strategies using DNA markers, grape genomics, genetics and breeding, grape development biology, the formation mechanism of some phenotypic and inner quality traits, such as skin color, berry shape and sugar etc. He also engaged in much extension job to the management practice both of table and wine grape vineyards.
Giovanni Battista Tornielli is a Full Professor of Viticulture at the University of Padua (Italy). He graduated in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Padua, and obtained his PhD in 1999. Until 2002, he carried out post-doctoral research in agricultural genetics at the University of Verona, and as a visiting scientist at the Vrije University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). In 2018, he became an Associate Professor of General Arboriculture and Tree Crops at the University of Verona, and in 2023 he moved to the University of Padua as a Full Professor in the same field. He teaches and has taught various courses in undergraduate, graduate, and PhD programs, mostly dedicated to the molecular biology, physiology, and cultivation of grapevines. His research activity covers the themes of grape ripening and postharvest withering physiology, with particular attention to the effects of environment and agronomic practices and the underlying molecular mechanisms. This research work is documented by a significant number of publications in high-impact international journals. Prof. Tornielli also serves/has served as an editor for leading journals, including Horticulture Research, Frontiers in Plant Science, and Horticulturae, contributing to the dissemination of innovative research in fruit tree physiology and molecular biology. He is a member of the Italian Academy of Vine and Wine.
Akifumi Azuma is a Principal Scientist at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) in Japan. His main research fields are physiological and genetic aspects of grape cultivation. His research aims to enhance grape production through the development of climate-resilient grape varieties and the elucidation of anthocyanin biosynthesis in grape skins. His research focuses on the molecular genomics and genetics of anthocyanin biosynthesis in grape berry skin, breeding and cultivation of table grapes, and the impact of environmental factors on grape coloration. He has developed DNA markers for early selection of high-quality, heat-tolerant grape varieties and contributed to postharvest technologies for improving grape quality.
Dr. David Bryla is a research horticulturist and lead scientist with the USDA-ARS Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Research Unit in Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Dr. Bryla graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Biology in 1987 and a MS in Ecology in 1989 and completed his PhD in Plant Biology at the University of California, Davis in 1994. He joined the USDA in 1999. Dr. Bryla has authored more than 150 scientific publications over his career and is recognized internationally for his research on water and nutrient management of horticultural crops. He compiled the most complete work to date on irrigation and fertigation of blueberries and other small fruits. He also led a team to identify temperature thresholds for heat damage in blueberries and is continuing to develop techniques for mitigating heat stress in the flowers and fruit. Dr. Bryla is a Fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science and serves as assistant editor for HortScience and an associate editor for Irrigation Science and Frontiers in Plant Science.
Associate professor of Horticulture at Utsunomiya University in Japan. He is a plant (molecular) physiologist whose main interest is the flowering mechanisms of the genus Fragaria, especially wild species, as well as the evolution of the genus.
Science Group Leader at Plant & Food Research in New Zealand. Research area began with a focus on sex determination in kiwifruit (Actinidia) and has expanded to oversee the group’s activity from molecular biology along the entire kiwifruit breeding pipeline.
Associate Professor of Horticulture at Washington State University in the United States. Program focus is small fruit crops in response to alternative management systems designed to optimize plant productivity, fruit quality, and on-farm efficiencies while maintaining the health of adjacent natural resources within a diversity of production systems. Crops of focus are caneberry (raspberry and blackberry), blueberry, strawberry.
Dr. Whiting hails from Canada where he earned his M.Sc. studying Postharvest Physiology of apples at the University of Guelph. He received his Ph.D. from Washington State University in 2001 studying whole-canopy gas exchange and applied tree physiology of sweet cherry. Since 2002 Dr. Whiting has led a temperate tree fruit research, extension, and teaching program at Washington State University’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center. His program has addressed the key factors limiting sustainable production of superlative fruit including fruit set, pollination biology, artificial pollination, canopy source-sink relations, crop load management, and canopy architecture. Dr. Whiting has adopted a total systems approach to incorporating mechanization/automation in tree fruit by combining the development of compact fruiting wall architectures with collaborative research into mechanical harvest, pruning, and thinning systems. His team works in collaboration with commercial producers around the world to improve production efficiency and orchard sustainability.
1991 PhD University of Bologna (Italy). 1998-2007 Associate professor at the University of Bologna. Professor at the Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (2007-now). Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (2008-2014). Vice-president of Eurac Research (2016-). President of the Italian Society of Horticultural Science (2016-2022). President of the Italian Association of the Scientific Agricultural Societies, AISSA (2020-2023). Chairman of the working group on “Mineral Nutrition of Fruit Crops” of the ISHS (2000-2005; 2012-2017). He leads the Tree ecophysiology and ecosystems group (https://treeecophysiology.unibz.it/) at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, where he also coordinates the PhD Program in Mountain Environment and Agriculture. His main research interests relate to the efficient resource use in agricultural systems and aim at providing basic knowledge to develop more sustainable production systems, with special focus on fruit trees and grapevine under the climate change scenarios. His research looks at the effects that plant physiological processes have at ecosystem scale and stretches from mineral nutrients to carbon and water fluxes. The research group activities integrate several techniques including micrometeorology, eco-physiological measurements, the use of stable isotopes, tree biometry and modelling. He has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and several international book chapters and papers in conference proceedings.
Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Miyazaki. received his Ph.D. in Agriculture from Kyoto University in 2001 and has been in his current position since April 2010. His research focuses on fruit science, especially clonal propagation. He specializes in persimmon (Diospyros kaki) research, especially dwarfing rootstocks, clonal plant propagation techniques including micropropagation and cutting propagation, and fruit tree biotechnology. His recent work includes the improvement of micropropagation protocols for the persimmon dwarfing rootstock ‘MKR1’ and its application to more efficient orchard management. He has received several awards for his research, including High Step Researcher (University of Miyazaki, 2019). He has also authored or co-authored numerous scientific papers and book chapters, including “Compendium of transgenic crop plants: Transgenic tropical and subtropical fruits and nuts” (2008), “Biotechnology of Fruit and Nut Crops, 2nd Edition” (2020), and “The Persimmon Genome” (2022). His work has been cited 1340 times according to ResearchGate, indicating his significant impact in the field of horticultural science.
Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture at Yamagata University, Japan. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies (master course) in agriculture at Kyoto University. Then he received his Ph.D. in Agriculture from Kyoto University in 2002. He began his career in 1984 as a researcher at the Yamagata Prefectural Horticultural Experiment Station, Japan. In 1987, he transferred to Yamagata University, where he remains to this day. He specializes in horticultural science, particularly postharvest biology and technology. Using European pear fruit as his research material, he has elucidated the mechanisms by which fruit loses its ability to ripen after long-term storage, and the mechanisms by which fruit does not fully ripen on the tree. He also conducts research on cherry storage and was convener, together with Dr. Tao and Dr. Taira, of the8th International Cherry Symposium held in Yamagata in 2017. He is actively involved in various academic societies related to horticulture and food preservation.
George Manganaris is founder and Director of CUT Fruit Sciences & Posharvest Group (www.fruitsciences.eu) at Cyprus University of Technology (CUT). His main scientific interests include the quality evaluation/phytochemical profile of fruit crops with the employment of physiological, biochemical and molecular approaches, the elucidation of fruit ripening syndrome with emphasis in the development of physiological disorders and overall the postharvest maintenance of fresh produce. He is Council Member and elected Vice Chair at the Division Temperate Tree Fruits at ISHS. In the past he has organized three ISHS symposiums and has acted as editor of the Proceedings of the X ISHS Peach Symposium (Acta Horticulturae 1352), V International Postharvest Unlimited Symposium (Acta Horticulturae 1079) and the III International Horticulture in Europe Symposium (Acta Horticulturae 1242). To date, Dr. Manganaris is the author of more than 100 contributions in refereed journals (4400 citations, h-index=33). As Editor-in-Chief of Scientia Horticulturae, he channels over six years of academic leadership to elevate scientific discourse in horticulture.
Rod Drew is an Emeritus Professor at Griffith University, in Australia. He has been actively involved in ISHS for >35 years. He was President of ISHS, 2014-2018 and President, 29th International Horticulture Congress, 17th – 22nd August 2014, Brisbane. He represented Australia on the ISHS council and served as Chairman of ISHS Commission Biotechnology and Molecular Biology from 2002 to 2010. He was Convenor and/or Chair of Organising and Executive Committees of 20 ISHS symposia. Rod has been invited to serve on >50 International Advisory Committees and Scientific Committees on Congresses (ISHS, Asian Horticulture Congresses, Asian Crop Science Conference), Conferences and Symposia in Australasia, Europe, North and South America. He has been an invited Professor at Universities in Belgium, Japan, China and the USDA in Hawaii. He was Chairman of Board of Global Horticulture Initiative, 2015- 2016, that was developed by former ISHS President, Dr. Norm Looney. Rod’s research interests include Plant Tissue Culture and Plant Biotechnology where he specialised in Tropical Fruit Crops. His Doctor of Science Award from the University of Queensland comprised 100 publications on “Carica papaya as Model for Biotechnology on Tropical Fruit Species”. He has published >200 invited reviews and book chapters, journal and conference papers. He has been editor of 12 volumes of Acta Horticulturae.
Sota Koeda received his Ph.D. in Horticultural Science from Kyoto University in 2011. He then started his career as an assistant professor at Kyoto University. In 2015, he joined the faculty of agriculture at Kindai University in Japan and is currently an associate professor in the laboratory of horticulture science. He has more than 40 publications in SCI journals related to horticulture, plant science, genetics, and virology. In 2020, Sota was honored to receive the Japanese Society for Horticultural Science Young Scientist Award. His research group mainly focuses on host resistance to plant viruses for better control of viral diseases in vegetables. Through his research, he has developed collaborative networks with many countries such as Indonesia, India, Taiwan, South Korea and Spain. The main focus of his research group is resistance breeding against begomovirus in Solanaceae and Cucurbit vegetables. His research group has recently identified the begomovirus resistance genes in pepper and cucumber for the first time.
Dr. Derek Barchenger serves as Senior Scientist – Pepper Breeding at the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, where he leads the global pepper breeding and improvement program. Derek joined WorldVeg as a Borlaug Fellow in Global Food Security in 2016 and was hired as a Postdoctoral Scientist in August 2017.
Wei Li received his Ph.D. in Plant Science from the University of Connecticut in 2017. He is currently a Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, and Vice Dean of the College of Horticulture at China Agricultural University. His research primarily focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of key traits in apple rootstocks. By integrating transgenic and genome editing technologies with other modern molecular breeding methods, he has developed innovative breeding strategies and techniques for rootstocks. His work has significantly advanced the field of horticultural science, particularly in the development of improved apple rootstock varieties
Zhenhai Han received his Ph.D. in Horticultural Science from Beijing Agricultural University in 1990. He is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University, where he has also served as Dean. He is a Council Member of the International Society for Horticultural Science and Vice President of the Chinese Society for Horticultural Science. With a focus on fruit tree physiology and molecular biology, Professor Han identified the first iron deficiency chlorosis-resistant apple genotype, Malus xiaojinensis, and proposed two mechanisms for iron absorption in apple genotypes. He developed standardized screening methods for iron-efficient genotypes and established a stem-tip culture technique for clonal propagation. He has authored and edited 12 books, published over 430 papers, research reviews, and abstracts, and led more than 30 national and provincial projects. He has served as the director of four provincial and ministerial-level laboratories and co-convened four international congresses. Recognized for his contributions, he has received the National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Class), six provincial awards, and holds 16 patents. He is also a selected member of the National “Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Talents Project” and a “Cross-Century Talent” by the Ministry of Education, China.
Hirokazu TSUKAYA, Ph.D.
Alexander Vainstein, Ph.D.
Ayumi Deguchi, Ph.D.
Zhanao Deng, Ph.D.
Sadafumi Uchiyama is the president of Uchiyama Design Studio and Curator Emeritus of Portland Japanese Garden.
Dr. Peter Irga is a leading researcher in the field of green walls, green roofs and urban green infrastructure. As a Senior Lecturer of Nature-based Solutions at the University of Technology Sydney, his work focuses on botanical-based air treatment technologies (or Active Green Walls), advancing them to the point of becoming an emergent technology with multiple projects worldwide. His work has earned him the prestigious Tall Poppy Science Award and has positioned him as a key advisor to international organizations such as the UN FAO and the World Economic Forum.
Dr. Shoko Hikosaka is an associate professor of laboratory of “”Plant Environmental Engineering”” in Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University.Her main research topics are “Efficient production of value-added plants under controlled environments” including the functional compounds production under environmental stress in greenhouses and plant factories, and food production in lunar farming. In addition to these core areas, her work also encompasses proposals for “Energy and resource-circulating urban models utilizing greenhouses and plant factories”, including carbon balance evaluations of rooftop and vertical greening on buildings, and strategies for high-efficiency water resource utilization in plant production. The plant materials for these studies include not only horticultural crops but also field crops, medicinal and herbal plants, micro-propagated plants, and genetically modified plants. She has examined plant responses from various perspectives—such as growth rate, water potential, secondary metabolite accumulation, and gene expression etc.
Professor Sin-Ae Park is currently a professor at the Department of Bio & Healing Convergence, Graduate School, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea. She received her Ph.D. in Social Horticulture and Horticultural Therapy from Kansas State University in the United States and completed her postdoctoral research at the Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Takeuchi is an associate professor in the Laboratory of Environmental Planting Science at the Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University. Her professional background includes over 20 years as a landscape planner for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, where she was involved in urban landscape planning, and the practical design, construction, management, and operation of parks and historic gardens in the capital city of Tokyo.
Dr. Luis Pérez-Urrestarazu is an Agricultural Engineer, and Full professor at the University of Seville (Spain), teaching in the area of agroforestry engineering. In the last 20 years, he has worked in water resources management for irrigation, aquaponics and Urban Greening. Particularly, he has been researching on several aspects of vertical greening systems, such as their performance, optimization of irrigation and lighting conditions, substrates, ecosystem services provided, uses for improving indoor air quality, irrigation with grey water, etc. He holds 3 patents on living walls. He is the Director of the research group AGR-268 – Urban Greening and Biosystems Engineering since April 2012 and Dean of the School of Agricultural Engineering since October 2020.
Topic: Insights into Nature-Based Healing: Current Practices and Future Perspectives from Field Experiences
Fumie Tazaki is a lecturer at the Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation, Osaka Kawasaki Rehabilitation University, Japan. Her background is in Landscaping, Agriculture, Horticulture, and Occupational Therapy, and she practices Horticultural Therapy. She received her Master’s degree in Medical Science from Wakayama Medical University. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science.
Takuya Kenmochi is currently a lecturer at the Graduate School of Landscape design and Management, University of Hyogo. While working as a horticultural therapist at a psychiatric hospital, he completed his doctoral studies in Department of Occupational therapy at the Graduate School of Medicine at Nagoya University. After practicing horticultural therapy at elderly care facilities and using green spaces to develop communities, he joined his current organization in 2022. At his current organization he is training horticultural therapists and conducting research on the effects of horticultural therapy. His specialty is horticultural therapy in the field of psychiatry, and he also conducts research on greening medical and welfare facilities and community building using green spaces. He is a board member of the Japanese Horticultural Therapy Association.
Dr. Zhangjun Fei is a Professor at Boyce Thompson Institute and an adjunct Professor at School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University. Dr. Fei earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from China Agricultural University and his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. Dr. Fei joined Boyce Thompson Institute as an Assistant Professor in 2006 and promoted to Associate Professor in 2012 and Full Professor 2019. He was a recipient of the US Secretary of Agriculture’s Honor Award for increasing global food security in 2014 and has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher since 2019.
Dr. Kunihisa is a principal researcher at the Institute of Fruit Tree and Tea Science, NARO, Japan. After graduating from Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, she conducted research on strawberry genomics as a researcher at Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, NARO.
Dr. Takada is a group leader at the Institute of Fruit Tree and Tea Science, NARO, Japan. After graduating from Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, he conducted research on fruits breeding as a researcher at National Institute of Fruits Tree Science, NARO. He received his PhD at the graduate school of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo in Agriculture in 2018.
Atsushi Kono is a principal scientist at NARO. Kono received his PhD at the graduate school of Science, The University of Tokyo in plant molecular biology in 2006. He joined and worked in NARO subsidiary in Higashihiroshima from 2006 to 2018, he became a co-breeder of three grapevine and six persimmon cultivars. His research interest was in grapevine disease resistance (anthracnose and donwy mildew) as well as persimmon DNA markers for astringency. During the career, he was a visiting scientist in Prof. Bruce Reish’s lab at Cornell university (New York State Experimental Station) in Geneva, NY, in 2012-2013 studying grapevine downy mildew resistance. After working at the NARO headquarters for one year and at the government ministry for two years, he has been working on stone fruit breeding in Tsukuba since 2022. Kono focuses on fruit tree breeding as well as related research such as disease resistance including methodology for resistance evaluation, and developing and optimizing DNA markers for real breeding.
Dr. Hasegawa is an executive researcher at the Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, NARO, Tsukuba, Japan. After graduating from Kyoto University, he worked as an assistant professor at Kyushu Tokai University and an associate professor at Hokkaido University before joining NARO in 2016.
Fabrizio Costa is an Associate Professor at the University of Trento (C3A-Center for Agriculture, Food and Environment). He earned a PhD. in Fruit Crop Science at the University of Bologna. During his post-doctorate he was Visiting Scientist at the Plant Research International of the University of Wageningen (the Netherland) and the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, USA), where he conducted studies of QTL mapping for fruit quality and the transcriptional profiling of the apple ripening. Fabrizio Costa has actively participated in several national and European projects, as well as in the genome sequencing program of grapevine and apple conducted at the Edmund Mach Foundation, where he was a researcher in the field of genetics and fruit genomics. He is the author of several publications in various journals of international interest in the field of Plant Science and Plant Genetics. He has served as scientific reviewer for international projects and he is a member of the editorial board in journals of significant importance in the field of plant genetics and plant science.
Tetsuya Higashiyama began his pioneering work on live-cell analysis of plant reproduction at The University of Tokyo, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1999. After serving as an assistant professor in the same department for several years, he joined Nagoya University as a full professor in 2007. During his time at Nagoya, he and his colleagues established the interdisciplinary Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM), which brought together biologists and synthetic chemists to advance research on key cell-to-cell signaling molecules in plant reproduction. In 2022, after holding joint appointments at both Nagoya University and The University of Tokyo for three years, Professor Higashiyama fully returned to The University of Tokyo. He currently leads the International Leading Research Program, “Key-Molecule Network in Plant Reproduction (KEPLR),” which involves collaboration with nine principal investigators in Japan and over 20 principal investigators in Europe.
