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Speaker Profiles - OECD Workshop
A highlight of the conference programme will be the OECD-sponsored workshop on Tuesday, 17 March.
International guest speakers will discuss the challenge of integrating biosecurity research and science in policy, regulation and operational management.
Day rates for registration are available to those who wish to attend this workshop without registering for the whole conference.
The workshop will begin at 8:15am with an opening address by Hon David Carter, New Zealand's Minister for Biosecurity. Profiles of the invited speakers are listed below.
Mike Wingfield
Director: Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria
Professor Mike Wingfield is the founder and Director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biology Technology Institute (FABI) and the Tree Pathology Cooperative Programme at the University of Pretoria. He is the recipient of major local and international awards, the most recent of which is the UP Outstanding Achiever Award and the UP Chancellor's Medal for Research.
Mike will be speaking at the conference on new associations between pathogens, insects, and tree species. This specialised topic is of relevance to biosecurity management as the range of organisms changes globally.
Peter Thomson, Director Post Border – MAF Biosecurity New Zealand
Mr Peter Thomson is accountable for reducing the impact of harmful organisms that have or may establish in New Zealand. The scope of his role includes biosecurity surveillance to detect new pests and diseases and to provide a basis for assurances to trading partners. He also leads biosecurity responses when harmful pests and disease cross our borders; and provides leadership and coordination for pest management activities across the biosecurity system.
Bringing a policy and operational perspective to the conference, Peter will speak on integrating biosecurity research and science into policy and regulation.
Mark Lonsdale - Chief of CSIRO Entomology, Australia
Dr Mark Lonsdale has extensive experience in invasive species and biological control. His began his long career with CSIRO as a weed ecologist in Darwin, Australia.
Dr Lonsdale’s research interests include biological invasions, environmental risk assessment, biological control of weeds, and the ecological implications of genetically modified organisms. His presentation at this conference will focus on pest risk analysis and invasion pathways, with emphasis on invasive weeds.
Pierluigi (Enrico) Bonello – Associate Professor of Plant Pathology, Ohio State University, USA
Dr Bonello’s primary research interest is in the ecological role of tree diseases. His presentation will focus on the potential of induced resistance as a tool for the management of pathogens and insects in trees. Potential of ind
Dr Bonello completed an MSc in Forest Sciences at the University of Padova, Italy in 1987 with a thesis on characterising pathogens associated with cypress canker. In 1991 he obtained a D.Phil. in Forest Pathology from the University of Oxford, U.K., working on resistance mechanisms in primary roots of Scots pine against soil borne fungal pathogens. Most of his current work is based on the model system represented by Austrian pine ( Pinus nigra) and the shoot blight and canker pathogen, Diplodia pinea
Andrew Liebhold - US Forest Service
Dr Andrew Liebhold has been a research entomologist with the US Forest Service Northern Research Station in Morgantown, West Virginia for the last 21 years. He received his PhD from the University California, Berkeley in Entomology and completed a postdoctoral study at the University of Massachusetts.
The primary focus of his research is the population ecology of biological invasions with special emphasis on exploiting this information for designing effective strategies to manage invasions (e.g., eradication, barrier zones, etc). The other emphasis of his research is on the spatial dynamics of forest insect outbreaks; much of this work has involved studies of the spatial dynamics of gypsy moth outbreaks.
Alain Roques – Head of INRA Forest Zoology Unit, France
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Dr Roques coordinated the recent survey of the terrestrial invertebrate species alien to Europe within the project entitled DAISIE (Delivering Alien Invasive Species In Europe). The purpose of this major project was to create an inventory of invasive species that threaten Europe’s terrestrial, fresh-water and marine environments. This information is used to assess the major risks associated with invasive species.
As a forest entomologist, Dr Roques is mostly interested in mechanisms governing establishment and expansion of exotic forest pests in Europe. He is in charge of developing a sentinel tree programme of European trees in China. His presentation at this conference will focus on invasion pathways, with emphasis on invasive insects.
Hugh Evans – Forest Research UK
Dr Hugh Evans is Head of Tree Health Division of Forest Research, the research agency of the UK Forestry Commission. In addition to coordinating a research team dealing with a wide range of pest and pathogen problems on trees, Hugh specialises in biosecurity issues. He liaises closely with UK and European plant health authorities and is a member of the EPPO Panel on Quarantine Pests of Forestry, Chair of IUFRO 7.03.12 Alien Invasive Species and International Trade and member of the International Forestry Quarantine Research Group. His particular biosecurity interests are on Pest Risk Analysis and the questions of whether emphasis should be on the pest or on the pathways on which they travel. He will be discussing this at the conference.
Eckehard Brockerhoff – Scion, Forest Protection Leader
Dr Ecki Brockerhoff is a forest entomologist and ecologist who has been with Scion since 1998. He has an MSc in Biology from the University of Kiel and a PhD in Forestry from the University of Toronto. Ecki’s research interests include various aspects of forest insect invasions, their ecology and prevention, as well as general forest ecology and biodiversity conservation. He is a member of the Better Border Biosecurity science management committee, President of the Entomological Society of New Zealand, and the deputy coordinator of IUFRO's research group 8.02 Forest Biodiversity.
Ecki and several members of his team have been involved with a number of insect eradication campaigns. He will be sharing some of the insights from earlier eradication efforts using insecticides and from recent developments in the use of mating disruption and other 'greener' eradication tools.
Gordon Hosking – Forest Health Ecologist
Dr Gordon Hosking has over 35 years experience in forest health research and research management. Much of this time was spent with New Zealand’s Forest Research Institute working on pests of both exotic and indigenous forests.
In 1997 he joined the Ministry of Forestry to lead the science team in the successful eradication of white-spotted tussock moth from Auckland. As a forest health consultant, his primary interests now lie in quarantine treatments for forestry produce, in particular reducing methyl bromide use, indigenous forest health monitoring and surveillance. He currently chairs Stakeholders in Methyl Bromide Reduction (STIMBR), a joint industry /government initiative.
Joan Webber - Principal Pathologist, Forest Research UK
Dr Joan Webber has been the lead pathologist at Forest Research for the past ten years, heading a team of scientists working on tree diseases. She also recently completed the co-ordination of a European project analysing the risk to Europe posed by Phytophthora ramorum, the cause of Sudden Oak Death in the USA.
Currently, the main focus of her research is the threat posed by alien invasive pathogens, and the long-term impact on trees and forest ecosytems following their accidental introductions. The global movement of these pathogens via the plant trade, and the effectiveness of regulation in preventing their spread will be a theme of her presentation.
Don Hammond - New Zealand Forester
Don Hammond has over 30 years’ experience in a wide range of forestry, forest health and biosecurity management activities. This has included roles in indigenous and planted commercial forest management, research and training, policy advice, and forest health and biosecurity response management.
Among projects Don has been involved with were the eradication of the Painted Apple Moth and Fall webworm in Auckland, Asian Gypsy moth in Hamilton and currently red imported fire ants in Hawkes Bay and Southern saltmarsh mosquitoes in Kaipara, Coromandel and Wairau in the South Island.
Don also has roles with the Forest Biosecurity Research Council, Nectria Focus Group and Dothistroma Control Committee.
For a pdf of Don's presentation, click here.
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