Prof. BART NICOLAI Division head Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology BIOSYST-MeBioS Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Box 2428, de Croylaan 42, B-3001 Leuven (Heverlee) BELGIUM

  
Presentation Title : "Postharvest metabolomics”

Bart Nicolaï was born on the 11th July, 1963 in Hasselt, Belgium. In 1986 and 1988 he obtained a Master’s degree in Agricultural Engineering (major: Chemistry and Agro-Industries) and Applied Mathematics from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), respectively. He obtained a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences in 1994 at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is now professor at the latter institute. He is responsible for the coordination of the scientific research in the Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology (Vlaams Centrum voor Bewaring van Tuinbouwproducten, VCBT), an experimental facility which was established as a joint project between the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Association of Belgian Horticultural Auctions in 1997. Since 2005 he is head of the division Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS) of the Biosystems department at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven which has a staff of about 70.  His main research interests are postharvest biology and technology, computational plant physiology, refrigeration, multiscale heat and mass transfer, and food quality.

Bart Nicolaï is past-chairman of the Special Interest Group on Postharvest Processing of the European Association of Agricultural Engineers (EurAgEng), and president of Commission C2 (Food Science and Engineering) of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR-IIF). He has been member of the organising and/or scientific committees of many international workshops and symposia. He is author or co-author of 150+ peer reviewed research papers and 300+ conference papers, and is on the editorial board of the journals Postharvest Biology and Technology, International Journal of Refrigeration, Journal of Food Engineering and International Journal of Postharvest Technology and Innovation. He has co-ordinated or participated in numerous EU and national research projects, and is currently chairing an EU COST action (924).

Prof. CHRIS WATKINS Post harvest Science Department of Horticulture 127 Plant Science Building Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853

Presentation Title: 1-MCP: a tool to understand physiological proceeses in fruits and vegetables

Chris Watkins conducts a postharvest science research program with a major focus on apple fruit. His research and extension activities are statewide and include development and conduct of harvest maturity management, postharvest handling, and storage technology from both basic and applied aspects.  He is also the Associate Director for Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE).

Chris’ research program is focused on developing the knowledge required for use of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), an ethylene-binding inhibitor that maintains quality of harvested apples. This work is now being extended to preharvest 1-MCP applications.  He also conducts research on new cultivars of importance to New York growers, on the effects of postharvest techniques on the nutritional quality of fruit, and to better understand the underlying mechanisms in fruit responses to storage conditions such as temperature, atmosphere, and 1-MCP, and the interaction of these factors with the development of storage disorders such as internal browning, external carbon dioxide injury and superficial scald.

Chris Watkins is responsible for developing and conducting the harvest maturity management, postharvest handling, and storage technology component of the multidisciplinary statewide fruit Extension program.  He works in cooperation with faculty in various departments, regional fruit specialists, extension educators, storage operators, and marketers in development, conduct, and evaluation of research and extension programmes.  He regularly provides guest lectures for various academic courses.

Dr RAY COLLINS Group Leader, Agribusiness School of Integrative Systems The University of Queensland AUSTRALIA

Presentation Title:   Putting the value into horticultural value chains

Ray Collins' research focuses on improving the commercial competitiveness of agribusiness firms through alliances and whole-of-value-chain strategies. Specifically, his interests lie in new industries, fresh food products and international markets. His recent research has attracted more than two million dollars of funding from government and industry. Present projects include how companies in value chains learn to collaborate, how value chain management can guide government policy, connections between innovation and value chain management, and the role of value chain management approaches to business in developing countries. In the last few years he has presented dozens of value chain management workshops to other researchers, new enterprise developers and entrepreneurs across Australia and internationally. Ray has been a Ministerial appointment to the advisory boards of the Australian government’s New Industries Development Program and its Industry Partnerships Program. He has published more than 80 research articles, chapters and reports, and has been the recipient of awards for Best Published Paper, International Collaboration, Excellence in Teaching, and a National Teaching Award. He presently supervises 9 PhD students working in the area of value chain management.

Dr MICHELLE JONES Associate Professor and D.C. Kiplinger Chair in Floriculture Department of Horticulture and Crop Science 214A Williams Hall 1680 Madison Ave The Ohio State University/ OARDC Wooster, OH 44691 USA

Presentation Title: Proteomic Analysis of Petal Senescence

Michelle Jones is an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster, Ohio. She received her B.S. in Agricultural Biochemistry from Iowa State University in 1993 and her Ph.D. in Horticulture from Purdue University in 1997. In October 2008 she was appointed to the D.C. Kiplinger Chair in Floriculture at OSU. Michelle has served on the Editorial Board for Postharvest Biology and Technology and currently serves as a Consulting Editor for the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science.

The goal of Michelle's research program is to enhance the postharvest quality and shelf life of floriculture crops. Her research investigates the environmental and developmental signals that accelerate postproduction decline in bedding plants, with a focus on the regulation and execution of leaf and petal senescence. She has used both genomic and proteomic approaches in the model crop, Petunia, to increase our understanding of the pathways controlling senescence. More applied industry-driven research projects focus on using ABA to enhance drought tolerance during shipping and retailing.

Dr Rod JONES Knoxfield Centre Department of Primary Industries, Victoria Private Bag 15, Ferntree Gully DC VIC 3156, AUSTRALIA

Presentation Title: The R&D Challenges Involved in Investigating the Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables and Prevention of Serious Diseases in Humans

After completing a PhD at Melbourne University on the physiological control of ripening in tomatoes, Dr Rod Jones joined the Victorian Department of Agriculture in 1988, where he worked on the post-harvest physiology of cut flowers. In 1996, Rod joined the Melbourne Market Authority as Quality Manager of the National Flower Centre. In 2000, Dr Jones returned to a research position with the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, Knoxfield, where he commenced work on the physiology of phytonutrient synthesis and metabolism in fruits and vegetables, including the effects of genetics, production systems, post-harvest handling and bioefficacy studies. This work expanded in 2003 with the commencement of the Vital Vegetables project. Rod is currently Science Manager, Australia, of this project, which is a large collaboration between DPI Victoria and PFR New Zealand developing a range of high health vegetable products. The project now involves several large international seed companies and 12 commercial partners on both sides of the Tasman. The first Vital Vegetables product, Booster Broccoli™, was launched in Australia in August 2009. Rod is currently Team Leader, Plant Physiology at DPI Knoxfield, where his team is continuing work on the physiology behind the phytonutrients within a wide range of vegetables and fruits that are thought to protect against human diseases.

Dr Pol Tijskens Senior guest researcher Horticultural Supply Chains, Wageningen University, Droevendaalse steeg 1, 6708 PB, Wageningen The Netherlands

Presentation Title: Consumers and food choice, quality, nutrition and genes

Pol Tijskens obtained his degree in chemistry (comparable now to MSc) at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) in 1964. During 20 years of experimental research studying storage and processing of fresh fruits and vegetables, he acquired a vast amount of latent knowledge on the behaviour of natural processes in general and of fruits and vegetables in particular. The vast amount of information led him almost naturally to modelling product and product quality behaviour, which was really unknown in that area in that time. He developed a process-oriented modelling system that proved to be very powerful and generally applicable. A large number of models was developed on a whole range of subjects. He developed a viewpoint on biological variance, how it can be understood, described and applied in practice. The majority was published in scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.

Since 2001 his interest widened even further to improve the integration between the pre harvest area and the post harvest area, to make it possible to exchange and apply information between the two segregated areas in horticulture. After almost 40 years of active research, he obtained his PhD from the Wageningen University (2004) based on a compilation of his modelling work in the last 10 to 15 years, but actually based on all the knowledge acquired through his active service in science. Recently, he became involved in the social and biological drive behind the food choice in preferences. He is member of the ISHS and was a member of the managing committee of the (ended) EU COST action 924 on “Enhancement and Preservation of Quality and Health Promoting Components in Fresh Fruits and Vegetables”.

He (co-) organised four international conferences (among them QUIC, a predecessor of this conference), all of which had proceedings published in the series of Acta Horticulurae.

He is associated editor of the new Internet journal Stewart Postharvest Review.

He is reviewer for the journals Postharvest Biology & Technology, J. Agric. Food Chem., Journal of Food Engineering, Food Chemistry, Journal of Texture Studies, Food Science, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture and many others.

Professor Eugene Kupferman Postharvest Specialist Tree Fruit Quality Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center Washington State University 1100 North Western Ave Wenatchee WA 98801 Kupfer@wsu.edu

Presentation Title: Optimizing Anjou Pear Quality to Meet Consumer Demands

Dr. Gene Kupferman has worked with the tree fruit industry of the Pacific Northwest USA for the past 30 years. His area of focus has been fruit quality, storage and handling of apples, pears and cherries. Gene combines a strong applied research program with extensive outreach activities with the commercial industry in the US.

The primary focus of his recent research in apples has been to determine the causes of Lenticel Breakdown of Apples (primarily Gala). This work has delineated the role of peel mineral balance, maturity and postharvest packing treatments in this disorder. Also in apples he has worked with sensory scientists, including Dr Roger Harker, to determine the role of edible quality constituents in consumers rating of various apple cultivars.

In pears, his recent research has been on developing methods to condition Anjou pears to ripen within 4 days of purchase at retail. This work has included the application of ethylene to speed conditioning and consumer studies to delineate targets for the pear industry. Prior research on pears has included evaluations of antioxidant strategies to control Storage Scald.

Gene created the Tree Fruit Postharvest Journal which then morphed into a web site. The address is: http://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu. You are invited to subscribe to the Postharvest Information Network at this site to keep informed on new information.