Research and Development in Tropical Agriculture, SA

Bernal E. Valverde

 

Bernal is President at IDEATropical. He completed his undergraduate education in Crop Science at Universidad de Costa Rica. He obtained both an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Weed Science from Oregon State University.  His academic career includes working at Universidad Nacional, Universidad de Costa Rica and the Tropical Agriculture Centre for Research and Higher Education (CATIE for its name in Spanish) in Costa Rica. From 1999 to 2006 he was an Associate Professor at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (currently University of Copenhagen) in Denmark. Since then he continues affiliated to University of Copenhagen as Honorary Professor and from 2012 he also serves as a Guest Professor at Nanjing Agricultural University in China.  Since 2006 he has been primarily dedicated to consulting through Research and Development in Tropical Agriculture (IDEA Tropical for its name in Spanish).  His research career has been devoted to the study of tropical weeds particularly in relation to the rice crop and to the management of herbicide-resistant populations. He is very well known internationally both as a consultant and as a member of scientific societies. He is the Past President of the International Weed Science Society and an Honorary Member of the Weed Science Society of America. He serves as Associate Editor for Pest Management Science, in the Advisory Board for Outlooks in Pest Management and as a reviewer for many reputable scientific journals. He is author or co-author of more than 50 scientific papers and book chapters in weed science and crop protection and co-author or co-editor of four books.  He currently chairs the Scientific Program Committee of the 7th International Weed Science Congress to be held in Prague, Czech Republic, 19-25 June 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jens C. Streibig

 

Jens is a world recognized authority in the herbicide bioassay and the statistical analysis of dose response curves, pesticide interactions, plant competition, fluorescence curves and complex datasets.  He recently retired from his position at Professor of Weed Science at the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.  He served as the Chairperson of the Pesticide Advisory Board of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.  He has been involved in international activities including the organization of scientific congresses (for the International Weed Science Society and the European Weed Research Society), expert missions, and as a teacher and speaker.  He is the editor Crop Protection and a reviewer for several scientific journals.  He is an Honorary Member of the Weed Science Society of America and received the NOVA University Network teaching award for the PhD course, Applied Statistics with R for the Agricultural, Life and Veterinary sciences.  He is the author or co-author of numerous publications, including the book Herbicide Bioassays and many scientific papers that have been cited over 4800 times.  He is also an outstanding photographer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luis J. Poveda 

 

Luis Poveda is the most recognized botanist in Costa Rica, particularly in the fields of plant taxonomy and systematics and ethnobotany.  Biologist by training, he is the founder and leader of the Juvenal Valerio Rodríguez Herbarium at National University.  He has been involved in many research projects and publications related to medicinal plants and their principles, many of them looking for anticancer and antioxidant properties.  He is the author or co-author of many botanical books including Arboles de Costa Rica and Nombres Comunes de las Plantas en Costa Rica, and several scientific papers.  He has discovered several new plant species to science, including Jatropha costaricensis and Verbesina tapantiana (seen in the photograph).  Many have been named after him such as the unique Lauraceae tree, Povedadaphne quadriporata and, just recently, a tree of the Salicaceae designated as Laetia povedae.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jerry Green

 

Jerry is President of Green Ways Consulting and an internationally recognized weed and crop science expert.  He worked as a scientist on herbicide discovery and development, genetically modified herbicide traits, resistant weed management, pesticide formulations and adjuvants, safeners, and the optimization of crop protection products. His career began as the first biologist hired to work on sulfonylurea herbicides and soon after made the first public disclosure of the second sulfonylurea herbicide, sulfometuron.  He is probably best known for his interactions with industry, academic, and government officials in the role of biological program leader for adjuvants.  He is often invited to speak at international conferences, has published over 100 papers, introduced 10 commercial products at technical meetings, and is currently a technical advisor on pest management technology to several companies.