Keynote Speakers
Gemma Beltran
Associate Professor,
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Dr. Gemma Beltran is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Oenology of University Rovira i Virgili (URV, Tarragona, Spain), teaching Wine Microbiology and Biotechnology related subjects on graduate and post-graduate courses, and a senior researcher in the Wine Biotechnology Research Group. She is also the general coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree on Wine Tourism Innovation (WINTOUR Master), granted by the European Commission, with U. Bordeaux (France) and U. Porto (Portugal) partners. Her research has been mainly focused on wine yeast ecology and physiology, expanding the knowledge about glucose and nitrogen metabolism of yeasts, both Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces, analysing their physiological and molecular response. In recent years, her research has also been related to the study of wine microbial interactions, and the synthesis of bioactive compounds by yeast, such as melatonin, and their role as antioxidant molecules. She has published more than 50 research papers in international journals and participated in several national and European projects as well as contracts with the wine industry.
Shivi Drori
Chair, The Samson Family Institute of Grape and Wine Research
Ariel University
Following his PhD studies in plant science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Dr. Drori established his research lab at Ariel University. Dr. Drori's main research interests are in grapevine and enology. One of his leading projects is the collection and characterization of the endogenous Israeli grapevine populations, and matching archaeo-botanical grape remains with these newly found grape varieties. This project is indeed a lifetime one, aimed towards the renewal of wine practice from local Israeli varieties, used in the Holy land during ancient times. His research group is involved in grapevine genomics, domestication studies, oenological studies, and their technology development. Tissue culture of grapevine and virus detection methods are also routine in his lab. In addition, his team is engaged in the discovery and development of botanical drugs, including growing, elicitation, extracting, and analyzing various secondary metabolites by UHPLC and GC-MS-SPME.
Presentation Title: Implications of the central role of the Holyland's grape populations in grapevine domestication
Felipe Laurie
Professor of Enology
University of Talca, Chile
Felipe Laurie is a professor of enology and serves as the director of the Doctoral Program in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Talca in Chile. Additionally, he’s an associate editor for both the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture and the International Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Felipe has actively contributed as a member of national boards and has provided consulting expertise to various private and public organizations
Presentation Title:
Breathe in, age well: A retrospective account of wine oxidation studies
Isabelle Lesschaeve
Principal
InnoVinum LLC
Dr. Isabelle Lesschaeve is a sensory and consumer scientist with 30+ years of experience in both academia and industry. She is the Founder and Principal of InnoVinum, an education and coaching business, and helps aspiring wine professionals and enthusiasts to deepen their wine knowledge through sensory education. She created InnoVinum Academy, an online platform dedicated to demystifying wine-tasting rituals; she also retails and wholesales the Wine Aroma Wheel, her favorite tool to guide beginners in describing their wine sensory experiences. Isabelle earned her Ph.D. in Food Science, specializing in Sensory Science, from the University of Burgundy, France (now Agro-Djon). Isabelle is the author and co-author of more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters and was a guest speaker at major symposiums, including the International Cool Climate Symposium, the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference, the Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, and SenseAsia.
Presentation Title:
The Role of Sensory Science in Defining Wine Styles from a Technical and Consumer Perspective
Fulvio Mattivi
Scientific Advisor
Fondazione Edmund Mach
Currently Scientific Advisor at the Research and Innovation Centre of Fondazione Edmund Mach, where his research was based in the Unit of Metabolomics. Former Professor of Food Chemistry at Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (CIBIO) and the Centre Agriculture Food Environment (C3A) of the University of Trento, Italy. His main research activities are towards investigating the presence, metabolism and reactivity of several classes of organic compounds, from the analytical, technological and nutritional point of view. His research interests have been directed towards the development of metabolomics protocols based on mass spectrometry, and of their application to biochemical studies in the fields of wine science, food science and nutrition. He authored over 230 articles in international scientific journals and numerous technical articles and book chapters.
Farhana Pinu
Science Group Leader
New Zealand Institute for Plant and
Food Research Ltd
Farhana Pinu is a Science Group Leader of Biological Chemistry and Bioactives group, New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd (PFR) where she is responsible for managing four different teams that specialise in metabolomics, analytical and natural products chemistry. After completing her PhD from the University of Auckland, she joined PFR to work on a project to develop fermentation technologies to produce lower alcohol wines using data driven approaches. Over the decade, she has contributed to some of the pioneering work involving the application of targeted and untargeted metabolomics in grape and wine research. Her current projects focus on the development and optimisation of metabolomics, lipidomics, flavoromics and imaging approaches mainly using mass spectrometry, to study yeast metabolism linking to fermentation outcomes, and also to understand plant systems to identify new flavour traits in horticultural crops. Farhana is the current President of Australian and New Zealand Metabolomics Society.
Presentation Title:
Data driven approaches in grape and wine research
Gavin Sacks
Professor and Associate Chair of
Food Science
Cornell University
Gavin Sacks received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Virginia and his PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Cornell University. He started as a faculty in the department of Food Science at Cornell University in 2007, where he is currently Professor and Associate Chair. His teaching and research interests involve analytical flavor chemistry, especially of alcoholic beverages. He is co-author of the Understanding Wine Chemistry textbook, along with over 75 peer-reviewed publications and 20 other technical articles.