Workshops & Webinars on IP for Plants

Dr Hanne Volpin has been active in horticulture and agriculture R&D for over three decades. After receiving her BSc in Agriculture, Field and Vegetable Crops in 1987 and acquiring her PhD in Agriculture, Plant Protection, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) in 1995, Hanne worked in the academic field as a Post Doc Research Scientist at UC Davis (USA) and, later, at the Department of Plant Genetics of the Volcani Center in Israel. In 1999, she launched her industry career serving as a Head of Bioinformatics services at Compugen Ltd (Israel), a Program Scientist at Keygene NV (NL) and Breeding Director at Hazera Seeds (Israel). From 2014 to 2019, Hanne was with Danziger Innovations heading the company’s R&D program and serving as Deputy CEO. Since 2019, Hanne has been an independent consultant utilizing her expertise in scientific, technical and organizational issues at various Ag-biotech companies.

Dr. Pere Arús is agricultural engineer (Universitat de València, 1974) and PhD in Genetics (University of California, Davis, 1984). His areas of expertise include population genetics, crop evolution and plant breeding, and he has specialized in the use of molecular markers and other genomics tools in plant genetics and breeding. His current main interests are in four crops: peach, almond, strawberry and melon, where he works on the genetics and genomics of characters related with fruit quality and disease resistance, and in the development of marker-based breeding methods that allow to circumvent some of the limitations of breeding in clonally-reproduced tree crops. Dr. Arús is autor of more than 200 scientific publications and has had various management-related activities at IRTA: director of the Center of Cabrils (2007-2009) and Chief Scientist (2009-2015). He is one of the initiators of the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) and was its deputy director (2003-2018).

Ellen graduated from Ghent University and started her career at ILVO in 2000. Over the course of her academic career, she has been involved in different projects on molecular genetics in azalea, including the development and implementation of several molecular marker techniques. She obtained her PhD (Ghent University) in 2010 on the interaction of phenotype, genotype and gene expression for flower colour and other plant quality traits in azalea. During her PhD, she became an expert in RT-qPCR optimization and analysis for gene expression studies. As such, she is responsible for the set-up of all RT-qPCR projects at ILVO-Plant. She is currently a Senior Researcher at ILVO – Plant Sciences Unit – Applied Genetics and Breeding and is involved in projects on molecular genetics and genomics in several field crops and ornamental plants. Currently, Ellen is working on implementation of the CRISPR/Cas technology in the framework of the ILVO research program. Recently, she has also become one of the contact persons for the open innovation platform of Living Lab Plant.

Dr Krieger has extensive experience in the field of Intellectual Property Protection for plant innovation and has held the position of the CIOPORA Secretary General since 2004. Before CIOPORA, Dr Krieger worked as a lawyer at an international law firm specializing in IP protection, particularly Plant Breeders’ Rights, advising agricultural breeders in several hundred court cases up to the European Court of Justice. Dr Krieger holds a law degree from the University of Bonn and a degree in business administration from the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. He completed his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Farmers’ Exemption in Germany” at the Philipps University of Marburg.