Ernesto Igartua is Head of the Genetics and Plant Production Department at the Aula Dei Experimental Station, CSIC, in Zaragoza, Spain. Ernesto is a biologist and plant breeder by training, who firstly worked in sorghum at CSIC as well as when working as a postdoctoral fellow in Kansas State University. Since 1996, he switched to barley genetics, genomics and breeding at CSIC, including 17 months at McGill University in Montreal, in the group of Diane Mather. Currently, his group explores the genetic diversity of barley landraces, which has led to the discovery of adaptation features particular of winter cereals from Mediterranean climates, tracing back to the expansion of the crop in ancient times. These discoveries have contributed new genes and alleles suitable to fine tune winter cereal adaptation to climate challenges.

Thorsten Schnurbusch is Head of the Independent HEISENBERG Research Group on Plant Architecture at the Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany. Before starting his current research lab in 2008, he was Leader of the Drought Focus Group at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) of The University of Adelaide, Australia. Thorsten’s lab is interested in the molecular-genetic elucidation of early inflorescence development in small grain cereals, specifically wheat and barley. For improving the functional knowledge of genes regulating key reproductive developmental traits the research in the lab uses natural spike variants from wheat and induced spike mutants from barley to clarify the genetic make-up of genes underlying developmental phenotypes for reduced and increased grain number per spike. His research provides new insights into the genetic basis of spike architecture in Triticeae and may disclose new targets for boosting yield potential. In recognition of his outstanding scientific performance, Thorsten was awarded in mid-2016 an ERC (European Research Council) Consolidator grant.

John Foulkes is an Associate Professor of Crop Science in the Division of Plant and Crop Sciences at the University of Nottingham. He has 25 years’ experience in wheat physiology focusing on understanding the mechanisms determining genetic variation in drought tolerance and N-use efficiency in wheat and their genetic regulation. His recent research has focused on understanding the traits determining genetic variation in transpiration and transpiration efficiency according to an integrated analysis of 12/13C and 16/18O isotopic ratios in leaf and grain tissues Research on root physiology has focused on developing high-throughput field phenotyping techniques including a shovelomics platform and testing associations between genetic variation in root traits and senescence properties, drought tolerance and N-use efficiency. Key areas of his research focus on identifying novel diversity in wheat pre-breeding germplasm for drought-tolerance and N-use efficiency traits including root system architecture traits. He has published more than 80 papers in wheat resource use efficiency. He is Nottingham PI on the BBSRC-DBT funded ‘INEW: Indo-UK Centre for the improvement of N-Use efficiency in wheat’ and the NIFA-IWYP funded “Advancing harvest index in wheat through genomics enabled breeding” projects. He is a Co-I in the BBSRC SCPRID funded ‘Exploitation of interspecific biodiversity for wheat improvement’ project. outstanding scientific performance, Thorsten was awarded in mid-2016 an ERC (European Research Council) Consolidator grant.

Elena Prats obtained her PhD in Agronomy in 2002. Afterward she spent 2 years in the UK (Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research) granted by a Marie Curie European Individual Fellowship (2002-2004). On finishing the post-doctorate studies, Elena was funded by a Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant to work at IAS-CSIC; and finally in 2008 she obtained a tenure track position at CSIC. Since then Elena’s work focused on plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and its interaction. The main objectives of her work have been (i) to understand the molecular, cellular and physiological bases of disease resistance mechanisms, which is crucial to achieve durable resistance and to avoid resistance costs, and (ii) to study -in an integrative way- how plants adapt to harsh environments from signaling processes (at cell level) to genotype x environment interaction (at crop level).