Franck Dayan was born in Lyon (France) and grew up in the south of France. He attended the Institut Agricole de Fontlongue where he developed an appreciation for plant science and agriculture. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from Auburn University in Alabama in 1995 and worked as a Research Plant Physiologist with the USDA-ARS Natural Products Utilization Research Unit for 20 years. He is now professor in the Department of Agricultural Biology and Nutrien Distinguished Scholar of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University. His work covers the mechanisms of action of natural and synthetic herbicides and the mechanisms of herbicide resistance in plants, as well as chemical ecological studies of plant-plant interactions (allelopathy). He is active in scientific societies and serves on the editorial board of several journals.

Laurie Drinkwater is a professor in the School of Integrated Plant Science at Cornell University. Before joining Cornell, she was the Director of Research at Rodale Institute. She received her PhD from University of California, Davis. For the past 25 years, her research program has focused on key mechanisms governing C, N and P biogeochemistry in agroecosystems. She studies soil processes at scales ranging from the rhizosphere, where plant-microbial interactions dominate, to the field and landscape scale, where human interventions to strongly influence ecosystem processes. The prospect of developing food production systems that enhance ecological processes while contributing to sustainability is a key idea guiding all facets of her work. She values collaborations with farmers and other practitioners and, over the years, these interactions have had considerable influence on the research that her lab has undertaken. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses that integrate ecological and agricultural knowledge. Her goal in teaching and mentoring students is to contribute to the development of scientists who will be equipped to address the global challenges we face in agriculture and environmental management.

Steve is one of Australia’s leading experts on sustainability and public policy, with three decades of experience at the intersection of research, policy design, and business strategy.

His expertise includes sustainability and global change, natural resource management, adaptive governance, economic modelling and integrated assessment, and megatrends and scenario thinking. Steve is an Associate Principal with EY Port Jackson Partners, and part of the senior leadership team for the EY Net Zero Centre. Steve’s previous roles have included Executive Director of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), Chief Coordinating Scientist for integration science and public policy at CSIRO (Australia’s national science agency), Board Member of the International Society for Ecological Economics, and multiple senior leadership and policy roles in Australian Government agencies. He is an honorary Professor of Public Policy at ANU, and an expert member of the UN International Resource Panel, and an honorary Associate at Oxford Net Zero at Oxford University. He has published more than 125 papers and reports, including journal articles in Nature, Science, Ecological Economics, Agricultural Systems, and Ecology and Society.

Annette Cowie has a background in soil science and plant nutrition, with particular interest in sustainable resource management. She is Senior Principal Research Scientist - Climate, in NSW Department of Primary Industries and Adjunct Professor, School of Environmental and Rural Science, at the University of New England. Annette’s current research focusses on quantifying and managing climate effects of agriculture and forestry, including through bioenergy and biochar. Annette is a lead author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report.