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