Dr Marie-Agnès Jacques is team leader at RIHS. She is a senior scientist working as plant bacteriologist. She has coordinated several research projects on seed health and epidemiology of plant pathogenic bacteria. Since 2013, she is involved in projects aiming at characterizing X. fastidiosa strains isolated from contaminated tobacco intercepted in France and X. fastidiosa strains from the recent outbreaks in France.

Post-doctoral fellow at ICA-CSIC Madrid (IVPP, Alberto Fereres' group). My main research fields are the mechanisms related to Xylella fastidiosa transmission by its vectors, and the epidemiology of the fastidious bacterium. I achieved my PhD at DiSSPA-UNIBA (Italy), working on X. fastidiosa epidemiology, mainly focusing on vector/vectors biology and X. fastidiosa transmission. During my PhD, I spent 9 months at Almeida's lab, UCB (Berkeley), working on Philaenus spumarius transmission dynamic of X. fastidiosa from grape to grape, and bacterium transmission to DSF plants. Previously, I worked at IAM-Bari in mandatory surveys of quarantine viruses, namely CTV and PPV, and Scaphoideus titanus. My main research topics besides Xylella fastidiosa are EPG-assisted study of insects' feeding behavior related to plant pathogens transmission, and identification and management of alien pests in agriculture.

Head of the operative unit of Bari. Donato Boscia is a plant pathologist part of the team who first reported, in October 2015, Xylella fastidiosa in olive, almond and oleander in Apulia (Italy). Currently coordinator of "POnTE - Pest Organisms Threating Europe", a project funded in the frame of the program Horizon 2020, he has made major contributions to the development of the main research programs now ongoing in Apulia on X. fastidiosa, by coordinating the field and laboratory activities. He has helped to gather important scientific evidence on the novel X. fastidiosa strain spreading in Apulia. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers, coordinated 8 R&D research projects and authored two patents on diagnostic kits. He has been Hearing Expert in EFSA WG Xylella fastidiosa pest risk assessment, PLH panel 2012-2015 (ALPHA).

With more than 35 years of experience in the area of agricultural entomology and phytopathology, including graduate and post-graduate stays abroad, a MSc degree (1987) in Entomology obtained at Purdue University, and a Postdoctoral stay at University of California, Riverside (1989), Alberto Fereres spent one year on sabbatical leave at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1997) to complete his background in the area of applied entomology and insect vectors of plant pathogens. Other previous positions include: Director of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (ICA) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid (2006-2011). Currently team leader of the "Insect Vectors of Plant Pathogens" research group at ICA-CSIC, Madrid. His research group is one of the best known internationally in the field of feeding behaviour of sap-sucking insects and transmission of plant pathogens. He has published more than 200 papers in scientific journals and 20 book chapters. Currently Chairman of the International Committee of Plant Virus Epidemiology (part of the International Society of Plant Pathology). He recently received the prestigious John V. Osmun Alumni Professional Achievement Award in Entomology (Purdue University, USA. 2017).

Research Scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC); she is a plant pathologist specialized in microbial ecology. She has made major contributions to molecular diagnosis (identification, detection and quantification) of plant pathogens (fungi, bacteria and nematodes) and to the study of the genetic diversity in their populations as well as the development of integrated and sustainable disease management practices. She is also applying NGS approaches to study the microbiome (fungi, bacteria and Archaea) in different 'ecosystems' (soil, plant, food and gut). With over 100 peer-reviewed papers published, she has coordinated more than 30 national and international research projects and contracts, authored three patents on specific diagnosis of plant pathogens and participated in organizing different scientific activities. She has acted as external expert for Xylella fastidiosa participating in different panels and working groups for the FVO, EPPO and EFSA since 2014.

Head of the "Phytopathology for Sustainable Agricultural Systems" research group at IAS-CSIC; Member of the PLH (Plant Health) panel of EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) and member of the board of the Spanish Society of Phytopathology. Navas-Cortéss is a plant pathologist specialized in plant disease epidemiology and integrated disease management. His main research interests are: Development of quantitative models to facilitate prediction of plant diseases and design efficient control strategies; Spatio-temporal dynamics of plant disease epidemics; Impacts of climatic change on plant pathogens; Detection, monitoring and quantification of plant disease epidemics by remote sensing; Species distribution modelling of quarantine pathogens. With over 66 papers published in peer-reviewed international journals, he has coordinated seven research projects, authored one patent on specific diagnosis of plant pathogens and participated in organizing different scientific activities. He has supervised seven PhD Thesis and four Master of Science projects, at the University of Córdoba, Spain.

Dr. Pasquale Saldarelli is a Senior Scientists in the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection of the CNR in Bari. He studied viral diseases of Mediterranean crops, mainly grapevine, and investigate plant-virus interactions. He described several new viruses affecting woody plants by classical and implemented the use of high throughput sequencing in the study of plant microbiome. He spent several research periods abroad and served as expert in Palestine (FAO mission) and Malta (EU Twinning Project). In 1999 he was awarded, as a member of the Bari research group, the "Filippo Maseri World Prize for distinguished Research in Agriculture. He served in the Steering Committee of the Italian Society of Plant Pathology (SIPAV) and is a member of the Steering Committee of the International Council for the Study of Viruses and Virus-like Disease of the Grapevine. The discovery, in 2013, of Xylella fastidiosa in olive in Apulia (Italy) pushed to devote his research efforts to this emergency. His current studies led to the description of the complete genome of the Xylella fastidiosa from olive, to transcriptome and metagenome investigations of olive-infected plants and to the study of the evolutionary history of this pathogen in the Apulia region.

Head of the Mycology Unit at IVIA working on the epidemiology and control of fungal diseases of citrus and other subtropical fruit crops. He develops epidemiological models and decision support systems for foliar fungal pathogens in citrus and persimmon. He also builds risk models for exotic plant pathogens and has participated as external expert in several working groups in EFSA. He has published over 30 papers in JCR journals and 10 new disease reports. He has led two R&D research projects at national level.

MSc in Remote Sensing from University of Dundee (Scotland, UK), and PhD in Earth and Space Science at York University, in Toronto (Canada). Pablo Zarco has studied airborne CASI and AVIRIS hyperspectral data to estimate leaf biochemical and canopy biophysical variables through leaf and canopy modelling, and the effects of chlorophyll fluorescence on leaf apparent reflectance through radiative transfer. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Davis, working with MODIS satellite for vegetation water content estimation using leaf and canopy models. He is currently at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (IAS), of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), where he works with AHS, ROSIS, Hyperion, AVIRIS, CASI, HyMAP and MERIS sensors over forest and agricultural canopies for pigment, nitrogen, water content and LAI estimation. His main interests are related to applications of remote sensing for vegetation stress monitoring, water stress detection with thermal imagery, and precision agriculture.

Biologist and Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Valencia. Currently, Research Scientist in the Plant Protection and Biotechnology Centre of Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA) in Valencia (Spain), where she is the leader of the research line of Phytopathogenic Bacteria. Throughout his career at IVIA, more than 15 years old, he has worked in different bacterial diseases of plants of great social and economic relevance.

For several years she has been Associate Professor at the University of Valencia, in the area of Microbiology, teaching both the theoretical and practical parts of various subjects.

Currently, her main research lines are focused on the study of plant bacteria from basic aspects of their biology until those related to the development of preventive and control measures to prevent bacterial plant diseases. She is currently involved in several national and international projects on Xylella fastidiosa and the diseases it causes, such as POnTE and XF-ACTORS, and on other relevant diseases such as fire blight and HLB.

She is also responsible for the National Reference Laboratory for Phytopathogenic Bacteria of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture.

Consultant Researcher in Plant Pathology at CIHEAM-Bari. Degree in Agricultural Science, PhD in Plant Protection and Arboriculture. 16 years of experience in education/training, applied research and international cooperation in Integrated Pest Management: pest and pathogen surveillance, monitoring, characterization, epidemiology and control. Researcher in Plant Pathology in particular in bacteriology of Fruit and Vegetable crops. Lecturer at MSc IPM course in IAMB. Scientific supervisor of about 40 MSc theses, Co-tutor in PhD theses in collaboration with Italian Universities. International consultant in the ANSES-France, FAO and TAIEX). Co-organizer and/or lecturer in several national & international training workshops at CIHEAM-MAIB or in other countries. Scientific and technical assistant to the Apulian program for the Monitoring of quarantine pests. He is involved in several research activities in Xylella fastidiosa (Horizon-2020 RIA project "XF-Actors; MULTITRACE; Mix-CoDiRO, etc.). He published more than 30 scientific papers in refereed journals, conference proceedings and books, taking also part in the scientific and organizing committees of several international conferences on organic agriculture.

Scientific Administrator and Senior Researcher at the CIHEAM-Bari Institute. More than 25 years of experience in research, education and international cooperation in the field of plant protection and related topics.
Scientific coordinator of the regional monitoring programs of quarantine pests and sanitary control in the framework of the production of sanitary improved plant material in Apulia region (Italy). Involvement in several regional (Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Apulia Region) and International projects on plant protection and related topics. GTZ and FAO plant protection consultant in the framework of international projects. His research activities are mainly focused on plant protection and relative topics, including the alien and quarantine pests/ pathogens, the sanitary and clonal selection of Mediterranean fruit species. He published more than 100 scientific papers in the field of plant protection, integrated pest management, sanitary and clonal selection.

Franco Santoro is a consultant researcher at CIHEAM of Bari with more than ten years of experience in Remote Sensing, Mining & Modelling Spatial Data, Mobile Embedded Systems, Real Time Applications and Information & Communications Technology applied to plant protection and environmental risks.

He is lecturer at the CIHEAM MSc programmes in IPM, supervisor of 15 MSc theses and co-tutor of 3 PhD theses.

He has been expert in some international cooperation projects (Olive oil in Lebanon). He is actively involved in several research projects at national and European (H2020: PON-MISE "MULTITRACE"; "XF-Actors"; Remote Sensing Applications in Plant Health - EUPHRESCO) levels for: developing ICT applications and models for the monitoring of quarantine pests and for multiscale epidemiological spread; analyses of bio-physiological indicators of biotic stresses through Chemiometric and No Imaging Spectroscopy (Proximal Sensing, NMR, HRMS) and procedures of recognition and automatic extraction of spatial features correlated to specific plant diseases. Designer and developer of the Android device 'XylAppPuglia' for field data acquisition. Author and co-author of more than 30 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Scientific reviewer of national and international journals.

Belén Martínez is an agricultural engineer, graduated from the Polytechnical University of Madrid. Head of Area in the Subdirectorate of Plant and Forest Health of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for 12 years, representing Spain at international meetings (Phytosanitary Committee of the European Commission, groups of experts of the Commission and Council, including Panels working on the Organisation of European and Mediterranean Pant Protection and the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures of the FAO).

Involved in the management of the Xylella fastidiosa problem both at Community and National level since the bacteria was detected in the EU. She has participated in all discussions on the disease in a decisión-making capacity to draw up community legislation and monitor its national application at focus points in Spain. She regularly takes part in organising courses for inspectors, informative meetings and other events related to the bacteria.

Mr Di Rubbo is a Policy Officer at the European Commission, within the Plant Health Unit of the Directorate on Crisis Management in Food, Animals and Plants of the Directorate-General on Public Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). He is in charge of the EU regulatory framework of major plant pests threatening the Union territory such as the plant bacterium Xylella fastidiosa and the Pine Wood Nematode.

From 2009 till 2014, he was the Senior Policy Advisor of Copa-Cogeca (European Farmers and Agri-Cooperatives Organisation) on issues related to animal health and welfare, plant health and risk management tools within the Common Agricultural Policy. He worked as consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome for a High-Level Capacity Building Programme on Policies and Strategies for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Raised on a farm in southern Italy, he graduated with honours in Agricultural Science at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Piacenza in Italy. He was Erasmus student at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK) and holds a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from Connecticut University (USA).

Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry and Master’s Degree in Biology (minor in Microbiology) from the University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Washington State University, WA, USA.

Associate Professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Auburn University, De La Fuente was chair of the Bacteriology Committee of the American Phytopathological Society (2011-2014). He is currently Senior Editor of the scientific journal Phytopathology, Editorial Board Member of APS Press, and Associate Editor of Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research and Agrociencia.

His research interests focus on the interactions between plants and associated microorganisms. He is particularly interested in infection processes, host colonization, biofilm formation, and molecular characterization of bacterial plant pathogens. He is answering research questions about the biology of pathogenic bacteria using a variety of microbiology and molecular biology techniques, as well as nanotechnology.