Professor Marcelis is Head of the Horticulture and Product Physiology Group at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. The Group is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading university centres of expertise on greenhouse cultivation and vertical farming. Professor Marcelis is an internationally-recognised authority on the use of light in greenhouse and other protected systems to optimise crop production.Dr Heuvelink is Associate Professor in the Horticulture and Product Physiology Group at Wageningen University and is well known for his work on crop physiology and modelling. Both have published widely on greenhouse cultivation. Professor Marcelis is Head of the Horticulture and Product Physiology Group at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. The Group is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading university centres of expertise on greenhouse cultivation and vertical farming. Professor Marcelis is an internationally-recognised authority on the use of light in greenhouse and other protected systems to optimise crop production.Dr Heuvelink is Associate Professor in the Horticulture and Product Physiology Group at Wageningen University and is well known for his work on crop physiology and modelling. Both have published widely on greenhouse cultivation. Beatrix Waechter Alsanius is an internationally leading researcher on sustainable food production in horticultural cropping systems, emphasizing on the use of microorganisms for environmentally-sound cropping systems, threats of human and plant pathogens in horticultural production chains and food safety of vegetables and fruit. Since 2009 her current position is chair professor in horticulture at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Alnarp, Sweden. During 2010 to 2013 she acted also as an adjunct professor in phytology at Université Laval, Québec, Canada and headed from 2009-2014 the international postgraduate school "Microbial Horticulture (µHORT)", funded by the Swedish research council Formas. Dr Toyoki Kozai is former President of Chiba University, Japan, where he is now Emeritus Professor. Professor Kozai is also Honorary President of the Japan Plant Factory Association (JPFA) and a former President of The Agricultural Academy of Japan. As a pioneer of indoor plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs), also referred to as indoor vertical farming, Professor Kozai is widely regarded as one of the founding figures in PFALs vertical farming and has edited a number of books on PFALs and is the author of over 300 publications on controlled environment agriculture technologies. Dr Eri Hayashi is Vice President of the JPFA where she is also Director of International Relations and Consulting. She is also CEO of E*Green Lab Inc. Eri has been Research Project Leader for a national project on Artificial Intelligence- and Phenotyping-based Smart Plant Factories with Artificial Lighting (PFALs). She also leads a number of international projects on technology development, has given papers at a number of international conferences and written widely on the topic of smart plant factories. Stefania De Pascale is Professor of Horticulture at the University of Naples Federico II. She is Chair of the ISHS Division Protected Cultivation and Soilless Culture and is on the editorial boards of a number of journals. Professor De Pascale is a leading authority on nutrient and water management of horticultural and ornamental crops. Youssef Rouphael is an Associate Professor at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. He is Editor-in-Chief of Agronomy MDPI and has been a guest editor on biostimulants in several International Journals (Scientia Horticulturae, Frontiers in Plant Science and Agronomy MDPI). He is a member of the scientific committee of Biostimulant.com. He is internationally-known for his research in horticultural science. Dr Nazim S. Gruda is Professor of Horticulture at the University of Bonn, Germany. Professor Gruda is internationally-renowned for his research and over 250 publications in areas such as soilless culture, controlled environment cultivation and product quality of horticultural crops. He is Chair of an International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Working Group and has edited Acta Horticulturae for the ISHS. In recognition of his research, Professor Gruda was awarded the 2003 “Dr. Heinrich-Baur-Prize” by the Technical University of Munich, Germany, the 2017 “National Scientific Prize” by the Albanian Academy of Science, and the status of “Distinguished Scientist” by the Chinese Academy of Science in 2020.
