In the run-up to the upcoming 14th IUPAC International Congress on Crop Protection, the IUPAC Next Generation Programme competition was announced. The response to the online submission of ideas and innovations related to sustainable crop protection was phenomenal. Hundreds of proposals from young researchers and scientists around the globe were received .
The first selection was done based on public voting on the submissions (visit the How to Apply page of the website for details on this process). The judging panel received a long list of the popular proposals, which they scored based on several criteria. Those with the highest score were included in the final selection.
The finalists were announced in the first week of April 2019.
Here are the eight members of the judging panel who made the final selection:
Olesya Kuzmina received her M.Sc. from the Lomonosov State Academy of Fine Chemical Technology of Moscow in 2011 in the area of heterocyclic chemistry. In the same year, she joined Prof. Paul Knochel’s research group at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitätas a graduate student and received her Ph.D. in 2014. In 2015 she began her postdoctoral research at Stanford University as a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft fellow and worked on the total synthesis of bryostatin 3 and vinigrol. Since February 2017 she is a Lab Team Leader at BASF SE, working in global insecticide research.
Beth Lorsbach is Crop Protection Discovery Chemistry Leader Corteva Agriscience TM, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont TM. Over her more than 19 years with Dow AgroSciences, now Corteva Agriscience, Beth has contributed to the success of Crop Protection R&D, in the Discovery Chemistry and Process Chemistry groups, through three key components- technology, collaboration and leadership (both people and project). Beth has authored over 94 patent applications, 21 external publications, and 28 conference presentations.
Dr. McConnell is an analytical chemist with more than 20 years of experience in environmental science research with a focus on agricultural topics. She currently serves as a Principal Scientist and Water Stewardship Manager in the Environmental Safety Department of Bayer Crop Science in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. She is a past-president of the IUPAC Division of Chemistry and the Environment.
I’m Nuno Neto from Faro, southern Portugal. I did my bachelor from 2014 to 2017 in Agriculture Engineering in Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Lisbon. I’m doing my master in Agriculture Engineering, specialization in Plant Protection, also in Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Lisbon. I’m currently doing research for the master thesis in the Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, in ” Use of plant extracts and antagonistic fungi on the limitation of the growth of Mangifera indica L. patogenic fungi”. I’m the Exchange Coordinator of the Portuguese committee of IAAS for two years now.
Professor Pieter Spanoghe has been Head of the Department of Crop Protection Chemistry at Ghent University since 2012. The Laboratory, as part of the department of Crop Protection, is highly skilled in the monitoring of pesticide residues in crops and foodstuff and environmental samples (soil, water and air), and the study of possible side effects of pesticide usage and environmental risk assessment and risk management. Prof. Pieter Spanoghe has built over twenty years of experience by executing, initiating and coordinating various projects in his research discipline. He teaches on all aspects of Crop Protection Chemicals
Will Surman is Director of Communications at CropLife International, a trade body which champions the role of plant science innovations to drive sustainable agriculture around the world. Before his role at CropLife, Will was the Parliamentary and Communications Advisor to the UK National Farmers Union office in Brussels, and before that he worked as an agricultural journalist in London and Buenos Aires. Will began his career working as a researcher to an MEP on the Agriculture Committee in the European Parliament.
Jhannel Tomlinson is a PhD candidate at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. She has been involved in a host of projects focused on agriculture, rural livelihoods and climate change , has published academic articles and contributed to technical reports on the theme of agriculture. She is currently the YPARD Jamaica country representative and was Jamaica’s youth delegate to the UNFCC COP24 in Poland
I’m Sanne Verheyen, Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering: Agricultural Sciences. I work at Crelan as a credit analyst for the agricultural sector. I analyze and decide on farmers’ credits, focusing on credit risk. Flemish agriculture is particularly innovative and we are following the innovation in investments very closely in each sector.
I am the mother of two children and I live near Leuven.
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