XLIII SICA Congress

The Contribution of the Agricultural Chemistry to Healthy and Resilient Agroecosystems and to the One Health Vision

Padua, Italy • 23-25 June 2025

XLIII SICA Congress

The Contribution of the Agricultural Chemistry to Healthy and Resilient Agroecosystems and to the One Health Vision

Padua, Italy • 23-25 June 2025

XLIII SICA Congress

The Contribution of the Agricultural Chemistry to Healthy and Resilient Agroecosystems and to the One Health Vision

Padua, Italy • 23-25 June 2025

Keynote Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Ismail Cakmak

Ismail Cakmak

Sabancı University
Istanbul, Turkey

Ilaria Capua

Ilaria Capua

Johns Hopkins University – SAIS Europe, One Health Centre of Excellence at the University of Florida, USA

Aki Sinkkonen

Aki Sinkkonen

Natural Resources Institute of Finland
Turku, Finland

Esther van der Knaap

Esther van der Knaap

University of Georgia
Athens, GA, USA

Roland Weber

Roland Weber

POPs Environmental Consulting
Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany

Aki Sinkkonen

Dr Sinkkonen was awarded with Ph. D. in Ecology at the University of Turku in 2006, and became Docent in Environmental Ecology in 2012 at the University of Helsinki in 2012. Dr Sinkkonen is currently Principal Scientist in Horticulture technologies at the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (LUKE) and the head of the research group in nature-based solutions at University of Helsinki. To date, he has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in peer reviewed international journals listed in SOCOPUS.
Dr Sinkkonen conducts research activities on novel and sustainable solutions for remediation of urban and degraded environments based on the utilization of plant communities and agricultural and forestry techniques suitable for large-scale applications, and microbially oriented urban rewilding. Dr Sinkkonen also conducts cross disciplinary research with experts from different fields including medical doctors, urban planners, and social scientists. His group was among the first to run biodiversity intervention trials to demonstrate how diverse plant communities and decomposing organic matter increase the human commensal microbiota, and improve immune response in urban dwellers. More information available at:
https://www.luke.fi/en/experts/aki-sinkkonen
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/nature-based-solutions
https://www.biwe.fi/

Ismail Cakmak

Dr Ismail Cakmak earned his Ph.D. from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany, and is currently Full Professor at Sabancı University in Istanbul. Published over 250 peer-reviewed articles listed in SCOPUS, he was named among the “Highly Cited Researchers” in Agricultural Sciences by Clarivate Analytics, ranked in the global top 0.05% of the most influential scientists across all fields, and recognized as one of the top 10 researchers in Agronomy by Stanford University for the past five consecutive years.
Prof. Cakmak has conducted pioneer research activity on the uptake of essential micronutrients (Fe, Zn, I) by crop plants to combat the micronutrient deficiencies in human (hidden hunger) through genetic and agronomic biofortification of plants. Current research concern the potential of mineral nutrition in mitigation of various environmental plant stresses (photoxidative damage, heat, low temperature, drought).
Dr. Cakmak has received several prestigious awards, including the IFA-Norman Borlaug International Crop Nutrition Award in 2005, the Australian Crawford Fund “Derek Tribe Award” Medal in 2007, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Georg Forster Research Award in 2014, the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) Science Award in 2016, and the World Academy of Sciences Agricultural Science Prize in 2016. He is an elected member of the Academy of Europe, and has delivered scientific presentations in 65 countries.
More information available at:
https://www.harvestzinc.org
https://www.harvestplus.org

Esther van der Knaap

Dr Van der Knaap received her undergraduate degree in Plant Pathology from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. She was awarded her Ph. D. in Genetics from Michigan State University in East Lansing in 1998. After a three-year post doc at Cornell University, she joined the faculty of the Ohio State University in Wooster until 2015. Since then, she has been Professor at the University of Georgia in Athens in Horticulture and in Plant Breeding, Genetics & Genomics. Dr Van der Knaap’s research focuses on fruit quality, such as flavor, shape and size of tomato fruits. She uses the genetic diversity of tomato to identify the underlying genes that contribute to variation in shape, size and flavor. The goal is to discover traits that were left behind during domestication to improve fruit quality as well as resilience of the crop. To date, she has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in peer reviewed international journals listed in SCOPUS and has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Agriculture.
Dr Van der Knaap is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia and is the recipient of the D.W Brooks award in Excellence in Research.
More information available at:
https://vanderknaaplab.uga.edu/

Roland Weber

Dr. Roland Weber received his PhD in 1996 from the Unoiversity of Tübingen with a dissertation on fluorinated and chlorinated-fluorinated dioxins, furans and biphenyls. From 1997 to 2002 he lead a POPs research laboratory in industry (IHI Co. Ltd; Japan) on Dioxin reduction from waste incineration and other waste treatment and on POP destruction technologies with R&D cooperation with Kyoto University and Ritzumeikan University. Dr Weber conducts research on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) since more than 30 years and from 2003 he works as international consultant for UN Organisations (UNEP, UNIDO, UNDP, Secretariat of the BRS Conventions), and environmental ministries for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on POPs. Since 15 years he is member of the UNEP Dioxin Toolkit and BAT/BEP group, developed a wide range of guidance documents for implementation of the Stockholm Convention for the Stockholm Convention Secretariat, and supported more than 40 countries in their Stockholm Convention activities. For UNEP he coordinated the report on “Chemicals in Plastics” compiling the information that more than 13,000 chemicals are related to plastics For the German Environment Agency he lead the study on environmental pollution of Dioxins and PCBs and related risk for food from animal origin. Dr. Weber has published more than 190 papers in scientific journals mainly on POPs and on chemicals in plastic related topics.
More information available at:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-Cexto4AAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.unep.org/resources/report/chemicals-plastics-technical-report

Ilaria Capua

Ilaria Capua serves as a Senior Fellow of Global Health at Johns Hopkins University – SAIS Europe, and holds the position of Courtesy Professor and Director Emeritus of the One Health Centre of Excellence at the University of Florida. She graduated cum laude in veterinary medicine in 1989 from the University of Perugia and obtained a specialisation and a PhD in Virology and Veterinary Public Health from the Universities of Pisa and Padua, respectively.
She devoted a significant portion of her career to studying animal viral infections that can be transmitted to humans, which contribute to poverty and food security challenges, including Avian Influenza, Newcastle Disease, and Rabies, within the One Health framework. She has collaborated with international organisations to formulate strategies for the prevention and management of health emergencies arising from potentially pandemic viruses. In 2006, she advocated for a significant change in the sharing of genetic information regarding viruses that impact humans and originate from animal reservoirs. As a result of this initiative, a variety of data sharing platforms have been established, hosting millions of genetic sequences of zoonotic viruses, including Sars CoV-2 (Covid-19), MPox, and Influenza viruses.
She has contributed more than 240 articles to peer-reviewed international journals, served as an editor for scientific books, and authored or co-authored chapters in scientific textbooks. She serves on the advisory board of multiple EU projects, including REGROUP and DURABLE, and holds the position of commissioner for the Lancet Commission on “21st Century Threats to Global Health.” She has developed the Circular Health paradigm, an extension of the One Health concept, which is featured in several recent publications in both Italian and English.
She served as a Member of the Italian Parliament from 2013 to 2016covering the position of vice-president of the Science, Culture, and Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
She serves as a columnist for prominent newspapers, and has authored several books for adults, teenagers, and children, with several titles translated into multiple languages.

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