IMPPC2026 KEYNOTE SPEAKER LIST Opening Lectures Brian Kobilka Stanford University School of Medicine, USA (2012 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for his work on G-protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs) Martin Chalfie Columbia University, USA(2008 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for his work on Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a biological marker) Craig C. Mello University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, USA (2006 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for discovering RNA interference-RNAi) Confirmed Keynote Speakers Pierre Abad INRAE, France Miguel Aranda CEBAS-CSIC, Spain Luis Avila Mississippi State University, USA Gwyn A. Beattie Iowa State University, USA Xavier Bellés Institut de Biologia Evolutiva, Spain Mark Belmonte University of Manitoba, Canada Colin Berry Cardiff University, UK Assunta Bertaccini University of Bologna, Italy Bryony C. Bonning University of Florida, USA Robert Brueggeman Washington State University, USA John Carr University of Cambridge, UK Gitta Coaker University of California Davis, USA Daniel Coyne International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kenya Neil Crickmore University of Sussex, UK Etienne Danchin INRAE & Univ. Côte d'Azur, France Brad Day University of Tennessee, USA Ke Dong Duke University, USA Elizabeth Fontes Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brazil Aaron Gassmann Iowa State University, USA Godelieve Gheysen Ghent University, Belgium Elena Gonella University of Turin, Italy Murray Grant University of Warwick, UK Russell Groves University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA Daniel Allen Hahn University of Florida, USA Nichola Hawkins NIAB, UK Graham Head Bayer AG, USA David Heckel Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany Dwayne Hegedus AAFC, Canada Salvador Herrero University of Valencia, Spain Monica Höfte Ghent University, Belgium Michelle Hulin Michigan State University, USA Hailing Jin University of California Riverside, USA Michael Jones Murdoch University, Australia Mithila Jugulam Texas A&M University, USA Juan Luis Jurat-Fuentes University of Tennessee, USA Kostya Kanyuka National Institute of Agricultural Botany, UK Minlee Kim Genolution Inc., South Korea Yonggyun Kim Andong National University, South Korea Kook-Hyung Kim Seoul National University, South Korea Glenn F. King University of Queensland, Australia Bruno Lemaitre EPFL, Switzerland Li-Jun Ma University of Massachusetts, USA Dana R. MacGregor Rothamsted Research, UK Jacob Malone John Innes Centre, UK Mamadou Kane Mboup Corteva Agriscience, France Kostas D. Mathiopoulos University of Thessaly, Greece Scott McElroy Auburn University, USA Raul F. Medina Texas A&M University, USA Hans Merzendorfer University of Siegen, Germany Steve Meyer RNAissance Ag, USA Richard Michelmore University of California Davis, USA Allen Miller Iowa State University, USA Neena Mitter Charles Sturt University, Australia Nicola Mori University of Verona, Italy David Mota-Sanchez Michigan State University, USA Ken Narva GreenLight Biosciences, USA Ralf Nauen Bayer CropScience, Germany Subba Reddy Palli University of Kentucky, USA Silvia Panozzo Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy Hanu Pappu Washington State University, USA Francesco Pennacchio University of Naples "Federico II", Italy Barry Robert Pittendrigh Purdue University, USA Dolors Piulachs Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC), Spain Gail M. Preston Oxford University, UK Emmanouil Roditakis Hellenic Mediterranean University, Greece Shinichiro Sawa Kumamoto University, Japan Sean Schoville University of Wisconsin Madison, USA Ameer Shakeel AgroSphere, USA Luc Swevers NCSR "Demokritos", Greece Daniel R. Swale University of Florida, USA Nobuhiro Suzuki Okayama University, Japan Gianluca Tettamanti University of Insubria, Italy Frank Takken University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Mahmut Tör University of Worcester, UK Patrick Tranel University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA Thomas Van Leeuwen Ghent University, Belgium Jeanmarie Verchot Texas A&M University, USA Ramesh Vetukuri Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden Andreas Vilcinskas Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany John Vontas Agricultural University of Athens, Greece Aiming Wang Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada James H. Westwood Virginia Tech, USA Steve Whyard University of Manitoba, Canada Qing Yang Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Kun Yan Zhu Kansas State University, USA Heiko Ziebell Julius Kühn-Institut, Germany
