Speakers

Geert Haesaert is an agronomist and plant breeder involved in more than 60 national and international research projects.

His research focus on sustainable crop production and –protection in moderate as well as in tropical agro-ecological zones. Recent interests are biostimulants, growth promoting - and bio-control microorganisms, plant – microbiological interaction in general as well as plant breeding in genetics. 

Geert Haesaert is co-founder of the MYTOX research platform (www.mytox.be) and of the consortium CropFit (www.cropfit.be).

He is president of the International Triticale Association (ITA) and external expert for national and international agencies. He is also co-founder of the Ghent University spin-off company Progeno that gives data-driven breeding advice to plant breeders companies.

Geert Haesaert is (co)-author of more than 184 international peer-reviewed - and more than 245 technical publications (https://biblio.ugent.be/person/80200016806).

Faouzi Bekkaoui is the director of INRA Morocco. He was previously Director of the School of Agriculture and Coordinator of the AgroBioSciences Research Program at Mohammed 6 Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Benguerir. Faouzi obtained his grade 12 in Berkane (Morocco) in 1978, then a Bachelor in Physiology (Maîtrise) at the University François Rabelais in Tours in 1982, and a PhD in Plant Physiology at the University of Paris 6 in 1986. He then went to Canada where he worked as a post-doctoral fellow and research associate at the NRC Plant Biotechnology Institute (PBI) in Saskatoon in the fields of plant molecular biology and biotechnology. In 1993, Faouzi joined the ID Biomedical Corporation in Vancouver to manage research and product development projects involving DNA diagnostics. In 1999, Faouzi assumed the position of Laboratory Manager with GenServe Laboratories at the Saskatchewan Research Council. He joined Genome Prairie in April 2003 as Project Manager of its "Enhancing Canola Through Genomics" project — a collaborative initiative that involved NRC and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.  In 2006, Faouzi rejoined NRC-PBI as Program Manager of Seed Systems. In subsequent roles, he served as Acting Research Director, the leader of the “Biorenewable Oils for Food and Fuel” Program, and Associate Director of PBI before the role of Executive Director. Throughout his career, Faouzi has co-authored 51 scientific publications in various fields including DNA diagnostics, molecular biology, genomics, and plant physiology. He holds three U.S. patents involving DNA diagnostics. During his career he delivered many seminars in the area of plant biotechnology to the public, schools, and at national/international conferences.

Behnam Taidi is a biotechnologist who graduated as a biochemist and got involved in Industrial Biotechnology straight away through his PhD project on the production of polyhydroxybutyrate at Hull University (UK). His career continued by incorporating one of the oldest biotechnological activities of humans, notably that of fermentation and brewing. He worked for many years in the brewing industry, being involved in applied research, process optimisation, site trouble-shooting and by-product valorisation. Behnam rose to be the Yeast Research Director at Carlsberg before deciding to enlarge his area of activity in Biotechnology in general. In 2011, Behnam joined Ecole Centrale Paris as a founder member of the Chair of Biotechnology of this engineering school in Champagne-Ardenne. Now he is a full-time professor, a lecturer, and a researcher at the laboratory of chemical engineering (LGPM), CentraleSupélec within the University of Paris Saclay. Always with an entrepreneurial spirit, Behnam is the inventor on three patents with forty to fifty publications in scientific journals, numerous posters and many oral presentations at international conferences. His current areas of work include efficient yeast propagation, water treatment with microalgae, and anaerobic digestion optimisation. His passion is by-product valorisation from the food industry.

Doctorate in agri-food bioprocessing from the Institut Polytechnique de l'Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France. Appointed Professor in 1996 at the Université Sultan Moulay Slimane, she has worked within the Faculty of Science and Technology at Béni Mellal on the development of process engineering, with a particular interest in deep-freezing, drying and methanisation, as well as the extraction of molecules of interest from plants. At the same time, she is responsible for a master's degree in intellectual and industrial property. Deputy Director of the Industrial and Surface Engineering laboratory, which specialises in the processing of agricultural products, the extraction of high value-added molecules for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and agri-food industries, and industrial management. Her research activities have resulted in the supervision of 30 theses and 60 internships.

Mohamed HAFIDI obtained his Ph-D thesis in 1990 at National Polytechnic Institute, Toulouse, France, in Agronomic Sciences and “Doctorat d’Etat” in Agronomic and Environmental Sciences at Cadi Ayyad University in 1996.Mohamed HAFIDI is a full professor at Cadi Ayyad University (UCA) Marrakech-Morocco since 1990 and affiliate professor at UM6P since 2018. His area of expertise is Agronomic Sciences, Environment; Composting and Organic waste treatment and valorization,   Biofertilizer. He supervised 40 PhD theses, 10 ongoing supervised Doctorate, and published more than 300 publications with high impact factor, 30 chapters, 10 patents... He developed more than 40 research projects many of them within african countries. Mohamed HAFIDI is currently Director of Microbial Biotechnologies, Agrosciences and Environment Laboratory (Labelled research Unit N°4, CNRST), at Faculty of Sciences Semlalia (Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh). He is nomminated by   the Ministry of Higher Education as an expert in the “Centre National de la Recherche Scientifiques et Technique” (CNRST, Morocco); for the period of 2012-2014 et 2015-2017 and 2019-2022. He is also Expert in DGD-AIRD (France) 2013-2016, Fonds de la recherche scientifique (Belgium), Fondation research-Croatia, Canada and other international programs…etc, He was the chair of the first edition of Mycoomed 2010 and Mycomed 2014 on mycorrhizal fungi.

Kamal ABERKANI, born in Morocco, in 1981 and he is Moroccan and Canadian. He completed his study on Agronomy at Laval University, Quebec, Canada (2000-2004), From 2004 until 2009, he continued his master and Ph.D on plant science at the same University in collaboration with Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Harrow, Ontario. From 2010, he continued working with many multinational companies in R&D on plant production. In 2015, he got his position as Professor at Faculty of Science and Technics, Al Hoceima, University Mohammed Premier (UMP). Since 2018, he is professor at the Multidisciplinary Faculty of Nador (UMP). Dr. Aberkani focused his research on plant production and physiology. He is a partner in many national and international research projects such as Prima and FOSC Eranet.