The BeXyl Team
Project Office

Blanca B. Landa
Research Scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-IAS). More than 25 years of experience in Plant pathology and Molecular Microbiology. Role in the BeXyl Project: Project Coordinator and Work Package 10 leader....

Ana Sánchez Montero
Ana Sánchez Montero is an agricultural engineer with extensive experience leading interdisciplinary projects. She has been working as Project Manager at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture of the Spanish National Research Council (IAS-CSIC) in Córdoba since...
WP Leaders and co-leaders

Juan Antonio Navas-Cortés
Head of the “Phytopathology for Sustainable Agricultural Systems” research group at IAS-CSIC; he is a plant pathologist specialized in plant disease epidemiology and Integrated disease management. His main research interests are to develop quantitative models to...

Marie-Agnès Jacques
Research Scientist working for the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), at the Institute for Research on Horticulture and Seeds (IRHS) in Angers, France Role in BeXyl Project: WP1 co-leader. I have an active...

Antonio Vicent
Coordinator of the Plant Protection and Biotechnology Center, Valencian Institute for Agricultural Research (IVIA). Plant pathologist focused on plant disease epidemiology, integrated management, and risk assessment of exotic diseases. Role in BeXyl Project: Leader...

Pablo Zarco-Tejada
Pablo J. Zarco-Tejada, Professor in Remote Sensing & Precision Agriculture. Leader of the Hyperspectral and Thermal Remote Sensing Laboratory (HyperSens) established jointly between the School of Agriculture and Food (SAF) and the Faculty of Engineering and...

Pierfederico La Notte
Research Scientist at the CNR Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (CNR-IPSP) in Bari (Italy). More than 20 years of experience in plant protection, epidemiology and qualification/certification of propagation material in woody crops. Role in BeXyl Project:...

Josep M. Pagès
Secretary General of the European Nurserystock Association, with more than 30 years of experience working in plant health in woody plant nurseries. Role in BeXyl Project: Co-leader in Work Package 3 - Use of thermal treatments for sanitation of plants and...

Ofir Bahar
Research Scientist at the Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Research , Agricultural Research Organization – Volcani Institute (ARO-VOL). More than 15 years of experience in Plant pathology and Molecular Microbiology. Role in BeXyl Project: Work Package 4...

Angjelina Belaj
Research Scientist at the Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Area. More than 20 years of experience in olive genetic resources and breeding. Curator of the World Collection of Olive Varieties of IFAPA. Role in BeXyl Project: Work Package 4 co-leader. Active...

Domenico Bosco
Full Professor in Agricultural Entomology at the DISAFA department. Vector entomologist with more than 30 years of experience on vectors of bacteria (leafhoppers and spittlebugs vectors of phytoplasmas and Xylella fastidiosa) and viruses (whiteflies and mealybugs...

Enrique Quesada-Moraga
Full Professor of Crop Production and Agricultural Entomology at the University of Córdoba (Spain). More than 25 years of experience in Agricultural Entomology and Microbial Pest Control. The University of Córdoba is an international leader in the agrifood...

Emilio Montesinos
Full Professor of Plant Pathology and Microbiology at the Institute for Food and Agricultural Technology of the University of Girona (UdG, Spain). More than 36 years of experience in Plant Pathology (Disease epidemiology and control). Role in BeXyl...

Stéphane Compant
Research Scientist at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. More than 20 years of experience in Plant pathology and Molecular Microbiology. Role in BeXyl Project: Project partner, Work Package 5 co-leader. Active participation in: 1) Molecular approaches for...

Gianni Gilioli
Full Professor of Entomology at the University of Brescia (Italy). He has almost 30 years of experience in the development of quantitative methodologies supporting decision making for population, epidemiological, ecological, and social-ecological systems management....

Diego Olmo
Research Scientist and Plant Health Lab Director at the Institut de Recerca i Formació Agroalimentària i Pesquera de les Illes Balears (IRFAP). More than 21 years of experience in Plant pathology. Role in BeXyl Project: Co-leader of Work Package 7. Active...

Chris Pollard
Behavioural Scientist specialising in use of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to investigate how decisions are made by people and groups in social-ecological systems. Member of the Society and Environment Research Group (SERG) for Forest Research, Great...

Jesus Barreiro-Hurle
Senior scientist at the economics of food systems unit of the Joint Research Centre leading the team on economic analysis of plant health. More than 25 years’ experience in economic analysis of farmer and consumer behaviour; agricultural policy and economics of plant...

Dario Prestigiacomo
Dario Prestigiacomo is the Ceo of Surrender Media Solutions, Belgium. After a brief experience with the Ansa press agency, in 2006 he started working as a journalist for the national newspaper “La Repubblica” in Palermo, covering politics, crime news, culture, and...

Katherine O’Donnell
Coordinator of the Global Seed Conservation Challenge and secretariat provider to the IUCN Seed Conservation Group. While at the MSB, Kew researched the dormancy of the Apiaceae family. She also manages the International Plant Sentinel Network (IPSN) a network of...

Maria Saponari
Senior researcher in plant pathology with experience in vector-borne diseases (viruses and Xylella). Role in BeXyl Project: Project Co-Coordinator. Active contribution in the exploitation of the experimental data from the previous projects towards the...
Other leading partners

J.A. Jimenez Berni
Research Scientist at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-IAS). More than 25 years of experience in Plant pathology and Molecular Microbiology Mail: jose.berni@csic.es

Alberto Fereres
Full Professor at the Spanish Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas) at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (ICA-CSIC). More than 35 years of experience in the field of insect feeding behaviour, insect ecology, virus-vector-plant...

Pilar Domingo-Calap
Ramón y Cajal researcher, leader of the Environmental and Biomedical Virology Lab at the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (Universitat de València-CSIC). Environmental virology, viral emergence, virus evolution, and phage discovery in the biomedical and...

Fernando Fermoso
Research Scientist at the Instituto de la Grasa, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-IG). His research focus on developing systems that combine recovery processes, such as the extraction of bioactive compounds, along with subsequent stabilization processes, such...

Montserrat Vilà
Research Professor with more than 30 years of expertise on the biology and impacts of biological invasions by non-native plants, especially in Mediterranean ecosystems. Role in BeXyl Project: Participant of WP8 “Ecological, social and economic impacts of Xf and...

Juan Imperial
CBGP (UPM-INIA / CSIC). Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, a joint Centre of the Technical University of Madrid and the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research, now a part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Research Professor,...

Belén Cabal
Tenured Scientist at the Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Research Center, Spanish National Research Council (Spain). She has over 10 years’ experience in the design of multifunctional materials with tailored chemical and textural properties. Her main research areas...

Ester Marco-Noales
Research Scientist at the Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Spain. More than 20 years of experience in Plant Pathology and Microbiology. Role in BeXyl Project: Active participation in: 1) Host range and pathogenicity of Xf strains; 2) Population...

Soraya Mousavi
Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, National Research Council (CNR-IBBR) - Italy Research Scientist at the Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources of CNR. Her research focus on characterization of olive genes involved in biotic and abiotic stresses, oil...

Pasquale Saldarelli
Senior researcher at the IPSP- CNR, Istituto per la Protezione Sostenibile delle Piante, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy. Plant pathologist with main research interests in diseases of grapevine and Mediterranean crops. He described several new viruses and...

Pablo González-Moreno
Researcher at Department of Forest Engineering at University of Córdoba (Spain). Terrestrial ecologist with more than 10 years’ experience in ecological modelling of invasive species and GIS applied for nature resource management. His research focuses on understanding...

José A. Gomez-Limon
Full Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Córdoba (Spain). More than 25 years of experience in Agricultural and Resources Economics and Policy. The University of Córdoba is an international leader in the agrifood field, one of the institution’s...

Samuel Soubeyrand
Research Scientist working for the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), at the Biostatistics and Spatial Processes research unit (BioSP) in Avignon, France.Role: Leader of Task 2.3 ORCID: 0000-0003-2447-3067 Mail:...

Leonardo De La Fuente
Professor, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA. Expertise in plant pathology, specifically in beneficial and vascular pathogenic bacteria interactions with plants. Role in BeXyl Project: Active...

Rodrigo Almeida
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & ManagementUniversity of California Berkeley, Usa Professor of Ecology of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Hildebrand-Laumeister Chair in Plant Pathology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has over 25...

Silke Robatzek
Silke Robatzek is a Heisenberg Professor at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich, Germany, supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Her research focuses on molecular plant-microbe interactions, having published on immune receptor signaling and trafficking....

Tanja Dreo
Microbiologist and diagnostician of quarantine plant pathogens. Head of the natioanl reference laboratory and a partner in the consortium European Union Reference Laboratory for pests of plants on bacteria. Activie in development and validation of new detection...

Helvecio Coletta-Filho
Scientific researcher at Agronomic Institute (IAC) in the Citrus Research Center Sylvio Moreira (CCSM). My research interest focus in citrus bacteria including benefic and pathogenic ones, specifically Xylella fastidiosa. Role in BeXyl Project: Active...

Carlos Chacón Díaz
Microbiologist specialized in bacterial pathogenesis. Have worked for more than 15 years in bacterial pathogens such as Xylella fastidiosa and Brucella sp. Interested in physiological and bacteriological traits that differentiate pathogenic strains and how these...

Crescenza Dongiovanni
Research Scientist at the Center for Research, Experimentation and Formation in Agriculture "Basile Caramia". More than 25 years of experience in Plant pathology and entomology. Role in BeXyl Project: Active participation in: 1) Effects of climate change and host...

Nico Horn
Director-General of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO), France, with more than 30 years of experience in Plant Health. EPPO is an intergovernmental organization responsible for cooperation in plant health within the Euro-Mediterranean...

Gregor KOSEC
R&D DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER (Slovenia) A chemist and biochemist by training, dr. Kosec has had years of experience in molecular biology of industrial microorganisms and secondary metabolites. He is in charge of scientific activities, R&D strategy, innovation, and...

Salvador Gimenez
Institutional Relations and Strategic Communication at RG Projects. Since 2017, with the first outbreak ofXylella in Alicante, a catalyst for thermotherapy technology to improve plant health in nurseries. Mail: sgimenez@rg-projects.es

Nicola Di Noia
Doctor of Forestry Sciences - Environmental Management and Soil Conservation. General Manager of UNAPROL, Chief Executive Officer of the EvooschoolI taly Foundation. Role in BeXyl Project: Project Partner. Active participation in: 2) Use of canine olfactory detection...

Annunziato Scaramozzino
Doctor in Agricultural Sciences - Agri-food Technologies. Master's Degree course. 2nd level University Master in "Energy management in parks, protected areas and rural areas aimed at environmental sustainability”. Enrolled in the professional register of...

Mireia Bordas
Research Manager and Head of Initial Material Center in Agromillora Iberia, SLU. More than 25 years of experience in In Vitro Biology. Role in BeXyl project: Active participation in Work Package 3 (Use of thermal treatments for sanitation of Xf-free nursery plants)...

Patricia A. Tolocka
IPAVE-CIAP-UFYMA-CONICET-INTA – Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Argentine Plant Pathology and Agricultural Modeling Unit, National Scientific and Technical Research Council, National Institute of Agricultural Technology-Argentina. Researcher at the...