Expertise: Agronomy, plant breeding

“As a scientist, I am alerted to the growing challenges to food, from health and safety to preference and sustainability, all in the context of a changing world. This program provides a unique environment to empower students with the knowledge they need to make wise decisions about where innovation will be most needed and solutions most effective. Big challenges need bold solutions.”

Dr. Bruce German is a professor and chemist of food science and technology at the University of California, Davis and the director for the university’s Foods for Health Institute. Dr. German’s work includes researching the role of fats and other components in the diet and developing ways to assess health and metabolism in response to foods. He uses milk as the model for the genetic blueprint for foods that support health, as milk evolves for the purpose of nourishing growing mammals. This evolutionary logic forms the basis of research for discovering physical, functional, and nutritional properties of milk components and applying these properties to foods.

Dr. German has published articles in more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, including Food in an Evolutionary Context and Nutrigenomics and Personalized Diets: What Will They Mean for Food? He has received honors as a Dean’s Distinguished Lecturer and a Distinguished Professor, and he was recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a Most Highly Cited Scientist.

Expertise: Maternal and child nutrition, agriculture, policy

Dariush Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, Special Advisor to the Provost, Dean for Policy, and Jean Mayer Professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; and Professor of Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine. Dr. Mozaffarian has stepped away from his role as Dean for the 2022-23 academic year, returning on July 1, 2023, to focus on the translation and dissemination of scientific evidence into public awareness, policy, and innovation, including to help inform the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.  His work aims to create the science and translation for a food system that is nutritious, equitable, and sustainable.  Dr. Mozaffarian has authored more than 500 scientific publications on dietary priorities for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, and on evidence-based policy approaches and innovations to reduce diet-related diseases in the US and globally.  He has served in numerous advisory roles, and his work has been featured in a wide array of media outlets. Thomson Reuters has named him as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.

Dr. Mozaffarian received a BS in biological sciences at Stanford (Phi Beta Kappa), MD at Columbia (Alpha Omega Alpha), residency training in internal medicine at Stanford, fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Washington; an MPH from the University of Washington; and a Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard.  Before being appointed as Dean at Tufts in 2014, Dr. Mozaffarian was at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health for a decade and clinically active in cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He is married, has three children, and actively trains as a Third Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo.

As one of the top nutrition institutions in the world, the Friedman School’s mission is to produce trusted science, future leaders, and real-world impact.  The Friedman School pursues research, education, and public impact across five Divisions, the Feinstein International Center, the Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute, and multiple academic programs.  Areas of focus range from cell to society, including: molecular nutrition, human metabolism and clinical trials, nutrition data science, behavior change, business innovation and entrepreneurship, community and organizational interventions, communication and media, agriculture, food systems, and sustainability, hunger and food security, humanitarian crisis, and food policy and economics.  Friedman School graduates are leaders in academia, US and international government, policy, advocacy, industry, public health, community service, and entrepreneurship.  The School’s unique breadth, engagement with the world, and entrepreneurial spirit make it a leading institution for nutrition education, research, and public impact.

Expertise: Public health, nutrition

Expertise: Computational and systems biology, nutrition, gene regulation

Howard has been involved with sustainable agricultural and agroforestry systems, pattern recognition, plant breeding, molecular biology and genetics for over 40 years releasing hundreds of cultivars into the public domain. He has worked with indigenous communities, NGO’s, governmental agencies and the private sector around the world. A former university professor for 15 years, Fulbright Scholar, Ford Foundation Fellow, in 2007 Howard was made a Fellow of the World Agroforestry Centre and authored the IAASTD chapter on Biotechnology and Biodiversity. He was a founding member of the Keystone Roundtable on Sustainable Agriculture, co-chair of the 1st and 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry and is Chairperson of the External Advisory Board of the Agriculture Sustainability Institute at UC Davis. In 2009 he was named recipient of The Award of Distinction from The College of agriculture and Environmental Sciences, UC Davis. He led the global effort sequencing, assembling and annotating the Theobroma cacao genome and is part of the leadership team for the Arachis genome global effort. In 2010 he was named a Senior Fellow, Plant Sciences, the University of California, Davis. September 2011, he announced the formation of the African Orphan Crops Consortium, set up to sequence, assemble and annotate 101 of the key African food crops in order to breed more nutritious plants. He as well set up the African Plant Breeding Academy with UC Davis at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi which opened the 3rd of December 2013. He has served on both for profit and NGO boards.

He collects and restores classic American, modern Japanese and Italian motorcycles. He recently became a member of the 200 Mile Per Hour Club on an unrestricted 1999 Suzuki Hayabusa. Averaging 201.386 MPH.

Expertise: Clinical proteomics, analytical chemistry

Barbara received her Ph.D. from Massey University (New Zealand) in 1997, and bachelor’s degree from University of California, Davis, in nutrition science and environmental toxicology in 1983. 

From 2016 to 2021 she was professor at Massey University in the College of Health Sciences, and since then as adjunct professor at  Massey’s Riddet Institute. Prior to this role, she worked for 16 years at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, as Senior Nutrition Officer and then as Chief/ Deputy Director of Nutrition.  Before joining FAO, Professor Burlingame spent 12 years as Nutrition Programme Leader at the New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food Research and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research; and two years as an analyst at the National University of Singapore. Since 1982 when she was awarded a research grant from UC Davis’s President’s Undergraduate Fund for work on trace alkali metal analyses, food composition has been a major focus of her work. 

She was coordinator of the International Network of Food Data Systems from 1993-2011, Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier’s Journal of Food Composition and Analysis from 1998-2010, and lecturer in the Wageningen/UNU food composition course from 1996-2013.  In addition to global level food composition activities, she  has had a 30+ year relationship with both OCEANIAFOODS and ASEANFOODS, and active involvement with food composition programs in every region of the world. She has more than 150 publications on various aspects of food composition, including national and regional tables and databases, guidelines/manuals on laboratory procedures from sampling and sample preparation, to data documentation, dissemination, and use; papers in peer-reviewed journals, books, and book chapters on many different aspects, including  integrating food composition into a range of sectors and disciplines. 

She has been a member of many scientific advisory boards and international committees; author of many scientific papers and UN publications, book chapters and reference books; and editor of several food and nutrition journals, including 13 years as, and currently as Specialty Chief Editor at Frontiers. 

Barbara chairs the Sustainable Diets Task Force for the International Union of Nutritional Sciences,  she is a member of the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food and Knowledge Systems, co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, and she recently completed two terms as a member of the  Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts for the Committee on World Food Security.  She is a Council member and Fellow of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences.

Dr. Ankeny is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Group at Wageningen University, bringing
extensive expertise in bioethics, the CARE Principles, and Indigenous data governance. Her research
focuses on data practices in science, particularly in biology and agriculture, and she has a nuanced
understanding of the ethical and practical challenges researchers face when applying the CARE
Principles and assigning context labels. Dr. Ankeny is particularly interested in the PTFI as a unique
opportunity to model thoughtful data governance, with a focus on the attribution of Indigenous
knowledge and the retrospective integration of CARE frameworks.

Dr. Sedran-Price, a Muruwari/Gangugari researcher, is a Senior Research Fellow at the
University Centre for Rural Health, University of Sydney. She brings extensive experience in climate
ecology, Indigenous health, and national data development, and has been a driving force in advancing
Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance across multiple sectors. She is currently contributing to
GBIF’s international task group on CARE principles and publisher responsibilities. Dr. Sedran-Price offers
critical insights into operationalizing CARE both at foundational and practical levels.

Isabel López Noriega is a Scientist II and Policy Specialist at the Alliance of Bioversity
International and CIAT. Her work focuses on the governance of plant genetic resources for food
and agriculture, with a strong emphasis on developing and analyzing policies that support the
conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity. She has contributed to international
guidelines and frameworks, including those endorsed by the FAO Commission on Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture, aimed at integrating genetic diversity into national climate
change adaptation planning. Isabel’s expertise spans policy research, legal analysis, and
advocacy, supporting countries in aligning agricultural biodiversity with food security and
climate resilience goals.​

Areas of Expertise: Plant Genetic Resources Policy, Agrobiodiversity Governance, Climate
Change Adaptation, International Agricultural Law​

Colin Khoury is a biodiversity, agriculture, and conservation scientist with over 25
years of experience in nonprofit, international, government, industry, and academic
organizations in the United States, Europe, and South America. He holds a PhD from
Wageningen University in the Netherlands and a Master of Science from the University of
Birmingham, UK.

Areas of expertise: Food plant diversity, biocultural conservation, and plant genetic resources,
including crops and their wild relatives

Katie Lee Riddle (Rongowhakaata) is a Māori researcher and academic from Aotearoa
New Zealand, specializing in Indigenous data sovereignty, benefit sharing, and Māori rights and
interests in genetic research, focusing on protecting Indigenous peoples’ rights in the digital age.
She also works with the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity as a Negotiator in recent
developments for digital sequence information and works closely with the Local Contexts team
on provenance metadata.

Areas of Expertise: Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Genetic Research Ethics, Digital Sequence
Information, Benefit Sharing, Māori Rights in Biodiversity Governance​

Mathieu Rouard is a senior researcher at the Alliance of Biodiversity and CIAT, with a
background in bioinformatics and plant genomics. His work focuses on leveraging advanced
genomic science to support the conservation of genetic resources and the digitalization of
genebanks. He has contributed to the development of datasets, analytical and visualization tools
and scientific databases to facilitate access to genomic information. His research has also
deepened our understanding of banana genomes, shedding light on their complexity and
diversity. As a result, he has co-authored nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications spanning plant
genomics, computational biology, and scientific database development.
Since 2016, Mathieu has also been actively engaged in policy discussions for CGIAR as part of the
policy team working on digital sequence information (DSI). In this role, he has contributed to
policy briefs and participated in key international forums, including the Convention on Biological
Diversity and the International Plant Treaty Forum, advocating for policies that promote open
DSI data sharing. He emphasizes the importance of properly managing and openly sharing
genomic data to maximize its benefits for biodiversity conservation and equitable access to
genetic resources.

Areas of expertise: Genomics, Bioinformatics, Data management, Policies (DSI)

Esteban Neira-Monsalve is an Industrial Microbiologist (BSc) and MSc in
Biotechnology from Wageningen University & Research. As part of the Genetic Resources Group
of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development in Colombia, he was a negotiator
of the Colombian delegation at COP15 and its preceding meetings. His role as a negotiator
focused on genetic resources (ABS), biosafety (Cartagena Protocol), synthetic biology, and
Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources (DSI). On behalf of Colombia, Esteban was
also a representative of the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) in the Informal
Advisory Group of the Co-Presidents of COP15 on DSI. Along with policy development to foster a
bioeconomy from the sustainable use of genetic resources and its DSI, Esteban is passionate
about driving innovation in industrial microbiology and biotechnology to develop solutions that
support a more sustainable future.

Areas of Expertise: Industrial Microbiology, Biotechnology, Genetic Resources Policy, Access and
Benefit-Sharing (ABS), Digital Sequence Information (DSI), Bioeconomy​

Alejandro Lago is an international consultant specialized in environmental law and
policy and associate professor of International Law at CUNEF University in Madrid (Spain). He
currently facilitates the negotiation of access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing (ABS)
agreements on Digital Sequence Information (DSI) at the commercial level between private
biotechnology companies and Indigenous groups in different countries.
He has actively participated, as part of the Spanish delegation, in the negotiations under the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that led to the approval of the multilateral system on
DSI (2024). He has supported the Secretariat of the CBD in the finalization of the study on ABS
indicators to monitor the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity
Framework (2024), and the Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI) in the development and
launch of its food database and its ABS policy (2022-2024).

Between 2017 and 2021, he was the Manager of the global project on access to genetic
resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from their utilization
(commonly known as ABS), which promoted the full implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in
23 countries — funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Before joining UNDP, he was the Director of the
UNESCO Chair for the Environment (2006-2016) at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, a
department that focused on bridging science and policy through the development and
implementation of environmental laws through different environmental and biodiversity
projects.

He is experienced in negotiating, establishing, and implementing new environmental
instruments, such as the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecological Services
(IPBES) (EU spoke person in the final stage of the negotiation) and the Nagoya Protocol on
access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from their
utilization (EU negotiator of the Nagoya Protocol). He holds a PhD in Law (Global Environmental
Governance), a Master of Laws (Environmental Legal Studies), and a Law and an Economics
degree.

He can be reached at alagoABS@gmail.com

Alex Reep is a researcher with an interdisciplinary background in Environmental
Science, Urban Planning, and Sustainable International Development. As a Fulbright researcher
in Colombia from 2023 to 2024, affiliated with the Biotechnology Team at the Alliance
Bioversity-CIAT, Alex explored what Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and farming communities in
Colombia consider to be fair and equitable benefit-sharing for the use of Digital Sequence
Information (DSI) derived from genetic resources in their territories. Alex is currently the

Convener of the Ethics and Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Expert Council for the Periodic
Table of Food Initiative (PTFI), where she works to ensure this effort to catalog the biomolecular
composition of the world’s food supply respects ethical and legal frameworks on ABS
compliance.

She can be reached at alexreep@berkeley.edu

Areas of Expertise: Genetic Resources Policy, Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS), Digital Sequence
Information (DSI), Biopiracy

Sarah Brinkley, Ph.D. joins the PTFI from the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) – a CGIAR Center, where she is a Postdoctoral Fellow leading the Food Sampling Strategy workstream. At the PTFI, Sarah endeavors to draw complex connections between growing environment, management, plant health, and crop quality through collecting standardized, high-quality metadata. Her perennial goal is to cultivate research among diverse, international teams of food systems experts toward a more just and food-secure future.

Sarah has strong expertise in biochemical food composition including multi-omics method development, solid qualitative and quantitative data analysis skills including proficiency in the R programming language, and excellent verbal and written communication skills, as evidenced by her successfully funded grant proposals totaling over UD$100,000, and dozens of local, national, and international scientific presentations to diverse audiences.

Sarah is a graduate of Texas A&M University’s Ph.D. program in the Department of Horticultural Sciences. Her work is informed by a diverse background working internationally in coffee and wine, bolstered by an M.S. degree in chemistry from Tennessee Technological University. Her research uses participatory methods to investigate how farming and postharvest practices impact crop quality.

Sarah’s love and curiosity about food are deeply rooted in the food traditions of the American South: soul food. Bitter, smoky collard greens and her Grandmother’s buttery, crumbling cornbread are some of her favorites.