Dr. Pamela Rae Becker (USA)

Professor, Technology Management, Eastern Michigan University, School of Technology & Professional Services Management

Dr. Akio Takenaka(Japan)

Deputy Director, Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC), Taipei, Taiwan ROC

The number of livestock farmers, especially pig farms, has been decreasing rapidly in Japan. The number of pig farms is now about 5,000, which is one-tenth of the figure from 40 years ago. The reason in the decrease in the number of farmers is thought to be intensified because of international competition, aging of farmers, volatility of feed prices, and the spread of animal diseases. On the other hand, the technological advances relating to animal science such as cloning and gene manipulation is remarkable, especially NBT (New Breeding Techniques) including genome editing, which has the potential to greatly change the world of animal science. It will also be meaningful to search for a new direction in livestock utilization through these techniques. I have been in the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) for two years from 2014, and the researchers in this institute have made many results about new directions of livestock usage. I would like to explain about transgenic pigs for medical model animals and a new regenerative medical material using animal products. I will also mention about artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer techniques which were established as innovative techniques a long time ago and have become used generally in farm levels.

Dr. Pekka Antero KESS (Finland) 

University of Oulu: Industrial Engineering and Management / Professor

Pekka Antero Kess, Finnish university director, engineering educator. Licensed professional engineer; Achievements include fluency or basics in Finnish, English, Swedish, German. Recipient research award Oulun Yliopiston Tukisäätiö, 1977, Tekniikan Edistämissäätiö, 1977, Tauno Tönningin säätiö, 1978, Walter Ahlströminimum säätiö, 1986, Jenny ja Antti Wihurin rahasto, 1986.

Dr Miranda Mirosa (New Zealand) 

Senior Lecturer Consumer Food Science, Department of Food Science, University of Otago, New Zealand

In her role as Senior Lecturer, Miranda is responsible for Co-ordinating the Consumer Food Science programme and is the Postgraduate Coordinator (Hons and Dip grad) for the Department of Food Science.
Miranda is an Interdisciplinarian with a background in marketing and consumer behaviour. Her research aims to understand why people eat what they do, why they don’t eat what they don’t, and how we might best impact upon these choices to encourage people to choose quality, healthy and environmentally sustainable foods.
Miranda is active in research and consulting regularly in areas relating to food waste. She is currently involved in the WASTEMinz (the representative body of the waste and resource recovery sector in New Zealand) National Consumer Food Waste Reduction project.
Miranda established University of Otago Food Waste Innovation Research Group (OUFWIRG) to focus on food waste. It brings together a range of social and pure scientists to discuss the challenges surrounding food waste and how to solve them. Scholarly collaborations are already resulting from the group.

Pairach Piboonrungroj 

PhD in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the Logistics Systems Dynamics
Group of Cardiff University.
Director of Supply Chain Economic Research Centre (SCERC) in Thailand.
Research projects are in tourism economics and logistics as well as consultancy works to various organisations such as The World Bank and Thailand Ministry of Tourism and Sports.