Symposium BI2-Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy

Materials innovation has been the key to developing new technologies. To support our rapidly growing world population, technological breakthrough has to happen in agriculture and energy, the two most critical sectors. For example, it is estimated that crop yield must be doubled by 2050 to feed the world population. However, emerging pathogens of resistant variety are constantly threatening the sustainability of agriculture as standard disease management practices are failing. To combat these deadly pathogens and safeguard food security, an interdisciplinary team effort must be in place with full support from the government and private industry. This is just one of many pressing issues which has alarmed the White House, resulting in President Obama recently signing the 5-year, one trillion-dollar Farm Bill. Agricultural sustainability is also critical for alternative energy source. To run commercially viable processes for producing fuel from biomass, environmentally-friendly, cost-effective technologies must be developed. High quality biomass production and thermo and biochemical processing of biomass to fuel (and other valuable byproducts) while minimizing waste are challenging. These require the development of efficient catalytic materials and relevant processes for which interdisciplinary effort is absolutely necessary. Therefore, materials innovation will have positive impact on sustainable agricultural practices for crop protection, food safety and bioenergy production. Through sharing of knowledge, this forum will create an environment (i) to learn more about the pressing agricultural issues from stakeholders, (ii) to help identifying possible industrially-viable solutions, and (iii) to identify pathways to minimize regulatory challenges.

Topics will include:

Materials Innovations for Crop Protection and Food Safety: - Emerging pathogens and current management practices - Non-traditional pesticides: risks versus benefits - Tools for characterizing pesticides in plant tissue - Systemic pesticides for managing vascular plant pathogens - Sensors for food safety - Sensors for early diagnosis of plant diseases - Sensors for monitoring pesticide application rate -Nanotechnology for food safety and food security
Materials Innovations for Biomass to Energy Conversion: - Engineered biomass with low ash content - Novel catalyst for biomass conversion - Environmentally-friendly biomass processing - Tools for characterizing biomass conversion - Biomass as alternative energy source - Sensors for monitoring biomass byproducts - Processes for minimizing toxic biomass waste - Sensors for detecting toxic chemicals in biomass processing facility - Modeling of biomass

Invited Speakers:

BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_0 (Universite de Bretagne Sud, France)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_1 (USDA-ARS-SEFTNRL, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_2 (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_3 (University of California Riverside, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_4 (French National Lab for Agricultural Research, France)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_5 (Pennsylvania State University, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_6 (Harvard University, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_7 (ICAR - Central Citrus Research Institute, India)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_8 (University of Tennessee, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_9 (University of Vienna, Austria)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_10 (North Carolina State University, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_11 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_12 (Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolécules Végétales, France)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_13 (University of California, Riverside, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_14 (University of Florida, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_15 (University of Kentucky, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_16 (Auburn University, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_17 (University of Central Florida, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_18 (Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_19 (Sandia National Laboratories, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_20 (University of Central Florida, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_21 (University of Georgia, USA)
BI2_Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy_22 (Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, USA)