Lightsym 2012 > Scientific Program

Scientific Program - Invited Speakers

Esteban José Baeza Romero - Estación Experimental de la Fundación Cajamar, Almeria, Spain
	Esteban Baeza is researcher of the Greenhouse Technology Department of the Experimental Station of the Cajamar Foundation in Almería, Spain. He received his diploma in Agronomic Engineering in 2000 from the University of Almería. In year 2007 he received his Doctorate (Ph.D.) in the same University with a study on the use of CFD to improve the natural ventilation design of parral type greenhouses. From year 2000 until now he works as researcher with main expertise on greenhouse technology for Mediterranean climate: mainly natural ventilation studies, new techniques for greenhouse cooling and heating, light transmission through greenhouse covers, etc. Nowadays he is actively participating in two projects (Euphoros and Spicy) of the VII Framework program of the EU, as well as in other important national projects (Cenit Mediodía, Inversos, etc.). He acts as reviewer for different peer reviewed scientific journals such as Biosystems Engineering, Building and Enviroment, etc.
Hans Gagnar Gislerød - Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
	Hans Ragnar Gislerød is professor in greenhouse crops, at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Life sciences (UMB), Norway and has his Ph.D. from 1978. Gislerød has been visiting scientist for 8 months at Danish Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, 6 months at Glasshouse Crop Research Institute, Littlehampton, UK, one year in 1986/86 at The University of North Carolina, USA and one year (1995/96) in The Netherlands at The research station in Aalsmeer. The research area started with root physiology, then plant nutrition and growing media, while for the last 10-20 years the work has mainly been related to climate and especially light. It has given almost 100 publications in international journals with referee. Gislerød has today international cooperation with: Wageningen University and Research Centre, Greenhouse Horticulture and Cornell University, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station on energy and light, and light and powdery mildew. University of South Florida and University of Minnesota, USA on microalgae.
Wim van Ieperen - Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands
	Dr. Wim van Ieperen is senior researcher and lecturer at the Horticultural Supply Chains Group of Wageningen University, The Netherlands. His research includes the broad topic area of plant environment interactions, and focus on the development and application of plant physiological knowledge in greenhouse horticulture. Last years this included research on LED technology in Plant Production System and research on Plants under Continuous Light. A second topic is Plant Water Relations with emphasis on xylem water transport. In the past he worked as postdoc at the chair groups Horticultural Supply Chains and Biophysics of Wageningen University. He also worked some years outside academic Research (1994-1997) with an brokerage firm on agricultural real estate in the Netherlands.
Cary Mitchell - Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA
	Dr. Cary A. Mitchell is Professor of Plant Physiology in the Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture at Purdue University. Dr. Mitchell has long worked in NASA’s Space Life Science programs optimizing growth environments for food crops and reducing costs to grow crops for human life support in space. Recent NASA work emphasizes the development and testing of “smart” LED lighting systems for plants that will significantly reduce the energy cost of crop lighting in controlled environments, including intracanopy lighting for self-shading upright crops and close-canopy overhead lighting for crops with low-profile growth habits. Recent work extends the use of LED lighting into the greenhouse to supplement sunlight at appropriate times of the year and to help create economically viable supplemental lighting systems for year-round crop growth in climates with low daily light integral. Dr. Mitchell is Purdue University’s representative to the NCERA-101 Committee on Controlled Environment Technology and Use.
Hendrik Poorter - Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
	Hendrik Poorter is scientist at the Plant Sciences group of the Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany. The Plant Sciences group investigates plant growth at a range of scales, generally by means of high-throughput phenotyping techniques. Hendrik is an ecophysiologist by training and has studied a range of topics related to plant growth, including interspecific variation in plants in their growth response to light, nutrients and elevated CO2, the reasons why fast-growing species grow faster than slow-growing species, photosynthesis:nitrogen relationships, and chemical composition and construction costs. Relevant papers can be found here. Currently, he is involved in establishing Meta-Phenomics, a large database based on experiments published over the last 60 years where the effect of 12 environmental factors on plants are considered. From that database, dose response curves are derived for a wide range of phenotypic traits, for the average plant species as well as functional groups of species.
Irene Vänninen - MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Jokioinen, Finland
	Dr. Vänninen is an IPM specialist with initial emphasis on IPM of spider mites, shore flies, and thrips in greenhouse crops, with a strong focus on technology transfer of IPM over the years. Her current research is linked to plant health, including the prediction of establishment potential of alien pests and the management of the quarantine pest Bemisia tabaci in ornamentals. Stemming from this work, Trialeurodes vaporariorum is used as a model to increase preparedness for the potential establishment of Bemisia in Finland. This work involves the direct and indirect effects of artificial lighting on whiteflies, aphids and mired bugs, as well as developing areawide management of whiteflies in the Ostrobotnia greenhouse cluster. Vänninen also leads a project supporting the national implementation of the EU directive 2009/128 to increase use of IPM in horticulture. She is the customer manager of the MTT Plant Production team “Horticultural IPM and apiculture.”
Eiji Goto - Plant Factory Research and Development Center, Chiba University
	Dr. Eiji Goto is a professor of Graduate School of Horticulture in Chiba University. He graduated from The University of Tokyo in 1983. After he received his Ph.D. from the university and served as assistant professor and associate professor at the university, and then moved to Chiba University in 2004. He is now working on environmental control engineering for greenhouses and plant factories and control of plant growth under artificial light. He was the project sub-leader of 'Development of fundamental technologies for production of high-value materials using transgenic plants (2006 – 2010)' by Ministry of Economy, Technology and Industry of Japan. He is the team leader of ' Elucidation of biological mechanisms of photoresponse and development of advanced technologies utilizing light for horticultural crops (2009 – 2013)' entrusted by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. He is the representative of Plant Factory Research and Development Center, Chiba University (2010 – ).