Plenary Speaker

Rattan Lal, Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science, The Ohio State University, USA

 

Animal distribution, abundance and interactions in drylands and in response to desertification

Chris Dickman, University of Sydney, Australia

Klaus Birkhofer, Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany

Itamar Giladi, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Shirli Bar-David, Ben-Gurion University, Israel

Dror Hawlena, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

 

Assessing emerging health risks in water: Drylands and beyond

Kornelia Smalla, The Julius Kuhn Institute, Germany

Ruth Hershberg, Technion –Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

 

Biodeterioration and preservation of desert archeological sites

Francesca Cappitelli, University of Milan, Italy

Federica Villa, University of Milan, Italy

 

Desert soil crusts: current and future roles in desert ecosystems

Jane Belnap, United States Geological Survey, USA

Roberto De Phillips, University of Florence, Italy

 

Efficient use of water in dryland agriculture

Norman Rosenberg, NJR Associates, USA

 

The environmental change-biodiversity-disease triangle: host-parasite interactions in the era of global changes in land use, temperatures, and aridity, with implications for disease risk

Serge Morand, Université de Montpellier, France

Cyril Caminade, University of Liverpool, UK

Ran Nathan, The Hebrew University, Israel

Takuya Iwamura, Tel Aviv University, Israel

 

Fairy circles as a self-organization phenomenon

Arjen Doelman, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Pierre Couteron. Institute for Research and Development, France

Efrat Sheffer, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University, Israel

Nichole Barger, University of Colorado, USA

Stephan Getzin, University of Goettingen, Germany

 

Land degradation neutrality: the physical and geographical dimension

Alan Grainger, University of Leeds, UK

 

Land degradation neutrality: will Africa achieve it?: Institutional solutions to land degradation and restoration in Africa

Luc Gnacadja, Former Secretary General, UNCCD

Liesl Wiese, Land and Water Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy

Magda Lovei, World Bank Group

 

Landscape restoration and renewable household energy

Wanjira Mathai, Director, wPOWER Project, Kenya

Tefera Mengistu Woldie, Forest Sector Development Program, UNDP/Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ethiopia

 

Mechanics of granular matter 

Itamar Procaccia, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Yoel Forterre, Aix Marseille University, France

 

Multi-source land imaging for studying desertification and land degradation

Garik Gutman, NASA Land-Use/Land-Cover Change Program, USA

Jiaguo Qi, Michigan State University, USA

 

Native and non-native trees in dryland afforestation

Giovanni Vendramin, Institute of Biosciences and BioResources, Firenze, Italy

Eric Higgs, University of Victoria,  Canada

Tal Alon-Mozes, Technion, Israel

José Grünzweig, Agriculture Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel

 

NGOs for water: activities in rural communities

Angela Moreno, National Institute of Agrarian Research and Development, Cabo Verde

Sivan Yaari, Innovation Africa, Israel

 

On-site sanitation, wastewater treatment and reuse

Peter van der Steen, IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, The Netherlands

Claire Quinn, University of Leeds, UK

Eran Friedler, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

 

Pattern formation in windblown sand

Bruno Andreotti, ESPCI Paris Tech, France

 

Plant abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms for coping with arid and semi-arid environments   

Sylvain Delzon, INRA, France

Herve Cochard, UMR-PIAF, INRA, Université Clermont-Auvergne, France

Tamar Avin-Wittenberg, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Yana Kazachkova, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Gideon Grafi, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Gad Miller, Bar Ilan University, Israel

 

Plant nutrition under abiotic stress

Philip White, The James Hutton Institute, UK

Nirit Bernstein, Institute of Soil Water and Environmental Sciences, Volcani Center, Israel

 

Practice and theory of combating desertification in rural areas

David Mutekanga, Uganda National Academy of Sciences, Uganda

Jane M. Mutune, University of Nairobi, Kenya

 

Remote sensing: Tools and implications for drylands

Sinkyu Kang, Kangwon National University, South Korea

 

Role and function of organic matter in dryland soils: Carbon sequestration by combating desertification

Joerg Bachmann, Leibniz University, Germany

Gabriele Schaumann, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany

 

Scientific conceptual framework for land degradation neutrality: a report of the Science-Policy Interface Committee

Pamela Chasek, International Institute for Sustainable Development, USA

Barron Orr, University of Arizona, USA

 

Self-organized vegetation patchiness: observations, modeling and model analysis

Mike Cramer. University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Sujith Ravi, Temple University, USA

Moshe Shachak,  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Maxim Shoshani, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

Mustapha Tlidi, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Yuval Zelnik, Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, CNRS, France

Nadav Shnerb, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

 

Soil component of regional and global climate models

Stephen Sitch, University of Exeter, UK

Shabtai Cohen, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel

Yossi Ashkenazy, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Erick Fredj, Lev Institute in Jerusalem

 

Soil-atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases

Eran Tas, The Hebrew University, Israel

Dan Yakir, Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Alon Angert, Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dan Yakir, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Ilya Gelfand, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

 

Urban form of dryland cities - mitigating effects of climate change and environmental degradation

Gerald Mills, University College Dublin, Ireland

David Pearlmutter, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Hadas Saaroni, Tel Aviv University, Israel

 

Vegetation patterns and processes in dryland regions in relation to land use and climate change

Francisco Pugnaire, Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas, Spain

Johannes Henschel , South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), South Africa

Merav Seifan, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Tarin Paz, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Israel

Moran Segoli, Ramat Negev Desert Agro-Research Center & Southern Research and Development Center, Israel

 

Vine molecular physiology and genetics

Prof. Mario Pezzotti, Vice-Rector for Research, Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy

Osvaldo Failla, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy

Etti Or, Agriculture Research Organization, Israel

Fulvio Mattivi, University of Trento, Italy

 

Vineyard-environment interactions

Bill Kustas, USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab, USA

John Prueger, USDA-ARS, National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, USA

Lawrence Hipps, Utah State University, USA

Prof. Guido D'Urso, Department of Agriculture – University of Naples Federico II, Italy

 

Viticulture/agronomy practices in relation to climate

Serge Delrot, Director of the Institute for Vine and Wine Sciences at Bordeaux, France

Dr. Claudio Lovisolo, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy

Yishai Netzer, Ariel University, Israel

Eliashev Drori, Samaria and the Jordan Rift regional R&D Center, Israel

Michal Ackerman, Tavor Winery, Israel

 

Water flow and heat transport in dryland soils: modeling and measurements

Wolfgang Durner, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

Gerrit H. de Rooij, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany

Dani Or, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Shmuel Assouline, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel

Alex Furman, Technion, Israel