Dr. Brown has been a Professor with the University of California, Department of Plant Sciences since 1988. Dr. Brown's research and outreach program has focused on development and implementation of information on the function of plant nutrients and on the management of fertilizer resources with a focus on high value crops. Dr. Brown is recognized globally as a leader in both basic and applied plant nutrition research and has made many important contributions to basic research and the Californian and Global industry with specific advances in the management of boron, potassium, nitrogen, zinc, foliar fertilization and salinity. Dr. Brown has authored more than 180 scientific journal articles, numerous industry focused practical management guidelines. Key contributions that Dr. Brown has made include, the identification of nickel as an essential element, founding research in the determination of the function, uptake and transport of boron in plants. Dr. Brown is recognized as a leading expert on nutrient management, foliar fertilization and the use of biostimulants in tree crops. Currently, Dr. Brown is at the forefront of developing management strategies for nitrogen in Californian Agriculture and is a key advisor to industry, water coalitions and water boards in the development of rational and effective strategies to manage nitrogen in Californian systems to achieve high productivity and system sustainability.

Dr. Brown graduated with a BSc (first class honors) from the University of Adelaide, Australia (1974), and Ph.D, from Cornell University, USA (1988) in Agronomy and Plant Nutrition. He has received awards for excellence in research and extension from the United States Department of Agriculture, the International Society of Plant Nutrition, Fluid Fertilizer Institute, and Potassium Industry Association. He serves as editor and associate editor for several academic journals, as scientific advisor to several industry groups and water coalitions and was past president of the International Plant Nutrition Society.

Dr. Lee Kalcsits is an assistant professor of tree fruit physiology in the Department of Horticulture at the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, Washington, USA. He completed a B.S.A in Horticulture and a M.S. in Tree Physiology at the University of Saskatchewan and a Ph.D. in Forestry and Tree Physiology at the University of British Columbia. For this work, he received the Marschner Young Scientist Award at the International Plant Nutrition Colloquium in Istanbul, Turkey in 2013. After a short postdoctoral stint at the University of Victoria, he accepted his position in 2014 with WSU working on apple, pear, and cherry. His research program works towards understanding the interactions between environment, horticultural management and genetics of tree fruit. Currently his work is focused on understanding the mechanisms contributing to calcium-related disorders and symptoms of abiotic stress in apple and developing strategies to mitigate those problems.

Tanja Mimmo is an associate Professor in Agricultural Chemistry at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the Free University of Bolzano, Italy since 2015. She completed a M.S. in Chemistry at the University of Bologna and a PhD in Agricultural, Forestry, and Food Sciences at the University of Torino. She was visiting scientist at the Federal University of Santa Maria and the Santa Caterina State University in Brazil, at the Technische Universität München, Germany and at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria. She is an expert in rhizosphere biogeochemistry focusing on the dynamics of elements triggered by the soil-plant-microorganisms interactions. Her research is focused on the mobilization, uptake and allocation of elements in plants applying chemical, biochemical, molecular and physiological approaches.

Oene Oenema was borne on a dairy farm in Friesland. He has BSc in Agronomy, MSc in Soil Science and Plant Nutrition and PhD in Marine Geochemistry. His research interest are in nutrient cycling and management in agro-ecosystems. From 1994, he is professor in Nutrient Management and Soil Fertility at Wageningen University. He is chair of the scientific committee on the nutrient management policy in The Netherlands, and distinguished professor at China Agricultural University in Beijing. He is (co)author of some 200 papers in peer refereed scientific journals (H-factor 81; total citations 22872; source: Google Scholar; 20-11-2019). He likes cycling.

Michael Raviv is an emeritus Professor of the Agricultural Research Organization, Israel, to which he was affiliated since 1971 (http://www.agri.gov.il/en/people/721.aspx).

His main interests are in plant nutrition in Organic Agriculture, growing plants in soilless media, composting, compost uses and their activity against soil-borne diseases. Since 1995 and until 2016 he taught an academic course on Organic Agriculture in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Over the years he published over 150 scientific papers. In addition he edited or co-edited 7 books, including the book: Soilless Culture: Theory and Practice (https://www.elsevier.com/books/soilless-culture-theory-and-practice/raviv/978-0-444-52975-6#audience) published by Elsevier. A second edition has recently been published (https://www.elsevier.com/books/soilless-culture-theory-and-practice/raviv/978-0-444-63696-6).

Michael has a long-term experience in various composting techniques aimed at producing composts suitable for soil improvement, plant nutrition, growing media and suppressiveness against a wide variety of soil-borne diseases.

Prof. Shtienberg is a senior research scientist in the Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), the Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, and as an Adjunct Professor of Plant Pathology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He completed his studies in the Faculty of Agriculture, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received his PhD in 1987. He joined the ARO in 1991. During the years 2004-5 he spent a sabbatical leave at the University of Adelaide, South Australia and HortResearch, Auckland, New Zealand. He served as the President of the Israeli Phytopathological Society (1994-1996), the head of the Departments of Nematology (2000-2001) and Plant Pathology and Weed Research (2006-2008) at the ARO. In 2016 he was nominated as the Deputy Director for strategic development of the ARO.

Prof. Shtienberg's interests lie in the area of plant disease epidemiology, modeling and crop loss assessment. He has developed IPM strategies and decision support systems for management of foliar pathogens of numerous crops. Among which are Ascochyta blight on chickpea, Septoria tritici blotch and rusts of wheat, rust of sunflowers, early and late blight of potatoes, Alternaria in cotton and carrots, fire blight in pears, bacterial canker of tomatoes, and gray mold in basil, tomatoes and cucumbers. Prof. Shtienberg has published more than 170 scientific papers and review articles in various international journals and proceedings of symposia and 100 papers in Hebrew. He has been the major supervisor of more than 30 graduate students in plant pathology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University.

Dr. A.K. Srivastava joined Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on December 5, 1989 in Soil Science - Pedology. Currently perched as Principal Scientist (Soil Science) at ICAR - Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur. Having received his M.Sc. (Ag) and Ph.D in Soil Science from world famous Banaras Hindu University, in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He has extensively pursued research work on different aspects of Citrus Nutrition like nutrient constraints analysis of citrus orchards by developing DRIS-based soil-plant nutrient diagnostics, orchard efficiency modeling, targeted yield-based site specific nutrient management exploiting spatial variability in soil fertility, citrus rhizosphere specific microbial consortium and soil carbon loading, INM module, nutrient mapping using geospatial tools, transformation of soil microbial biomass nutrients within citrus rhizosphere and soil  fertility map as decision support tool for fertilizer recommendation. Handled 15 projects as Principal Investigator and 17 projects as Co-Principal Investigator. Credited with 140 Research Papers and 43 Policy Review. Received the awards like S.N.Ranade Award for Excellence in Micronutrient Research, FAI Silver Jubilee Award, International Plant Nutrition Institute-FAI Award, etc. Life Member of as many as 32 academic societies with rich peer reviewed editorial experience, besides Honorary Member of World Association of Soil and Water Conservationists. Inducted as fellow of 10 professional academic societies. Authored the books like Citrus: Climate and Soil, Citrus Nutrition Advances in Citrus Nutrition by Springer-Verlag, The Netherland. He was keynote speaker in World Citrus Congress at Wuhan, China.

Fusuo Zhang, Professor in Plant Nutrition. His research is mainly focused on how to realize high crop yield, high nutrient use efficiency and protect environment at the same time, in order to ensure food security and realize sustainable development in China. In last more than 30 years, he developed a series of integrated soil-crop and nutrient management technologies to increase crop yield and improve nutrient use efficiency, while reduce environmental footprint significantly. Through the vast network and governmental actions the great changes have been made for transformation of agriculture from sole high input and output to high yield, high efficiency and environmental sound. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers, including the prestige Science, Nature and PNAS and got 2007 IFA International Crop Nutrition Award as well as 2014 Award for Agricultural Science from The World Academy of Science. He pioneered a new model of transfer of knowledge to farmers and fertilizer industry and successfully tested in 15 provinces across China. He got 3 national and 5 province awards on science and technology advances, and has been elected to be the members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the member of the World Academy of Science and the International Eurasian Academy of Science.