Richard Richards, Chief Research Scientist, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Canberra, Australia

Having published more than 100 scientific papers, Dr Richards is considered an authority on breeding drought-tolerant wheat. He is on the Editorial Board of three international journals and was recently awarded the Ruth and Martin Massengale Medal from the American Society for Agronomy. A team led by Dr Richards was recently awarded a CSIRO Medal for improving the water-use efficiency of wheat.

Rachid Serraj, Senior Scientist, Crop Physiology, International Rice Research Institute

Dr. Serraj has been working at the International Rice Research Institute for over three years, where he works on the Drought Frontier Project and STRASA - Stress-tolerant Rice for Poor Farmers in Africa and South Asia. He is on the Editorial Board and/or reviews for nine international journals and is on the Steering & Scientific Committees of various International Conferences, including InterDrought-II & III and WATMED2. He has over eighty papers in international peer-reviewed journals.

Roberto Tuberosa, Professor, University of Bologna, Italy

Dr. Tuberosa is a Professor at the University of Bologna in Italy, where he performs research on Plant Biotechnology Applied to Plant Breeding and Agricultural Genetics. He is on the Editorial Board of three international journals and was also on the Steering Committee for Interdrought-II and International Wheat Genome Program (IWGP).

  Renee Lafitte, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Woodland, CA

Dr. Lafitte is a crop physiologist who works with breeders and molecular biologists toward the goal of improving crop adaptation to abiotic stresses, particularly drought and low N availability.  After receiving her PhD, she worked at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, and later joined the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines in 1995, where she worked to develop managed drought screening systems for rice improvement. She returned to maize research when she joined Pioneer Hi-Bred Int'l in 2005, and is now undertaking field evaluations of transgenes to improve agronomic traits including drought tolerance and nitrogen use efficiency.

Lisa Donovan, Professor, Department of Plant Biology, University of Georgia

The Donovan lab investigates plant evolutionary ecophysiology, with an emphasis on stress and resource use traits as they relate to plant performance.  Dr. Donovan was awarded a 2009 Fulbright Scholarship, acting as Visiting Professor at Radboud University, Nijmegen Netherlands. She was given the Creative Research award by the University of Georgia in 2006, serves on the Editorial Board of Ecology and Ecological Monographs, and has published over sixty scientific papers on plant physiology.

John McKay, Assistant Professor, Bioagricultural Science and Pest Management, Colorado State University

Dr. McKay studies the traits and loci underlying drought adaptation in plants by combining field experiments, genomics, physiology and statistical genetics. He is an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University and the principal investigator behind the Plant Breeding for Drought Tolerance course and symposium.

Marc Moragues, Assistant Professor, Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University

Dr. Moragues investigates the physiological responses of cereals to drought and heat, as well as developing molecular tools to increase efficiency in selection. He was a recipient of the MEC/Fulbright Post-doctoral Scholarship in 2006.

William Bauerle, Associate Professor, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Colorado State University

Dr. Bauerle studies ecophysiology, stress physiology, tree physiology, and terrestrial ecosystem modeling as Associate Professor at Colorado State University. He also continues to hold appointments at both Clemson and Duke Universities, and serves on Tree Physiology’s Editorial Review Board. He is past Chair of ASHS Environmental Stress Physiology Working Group.