Vito Armando Laudicina is Associate Professor in Agricultural Chemistry at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences of the University of Palermo. He is Visiting Professor at Departamento di Ciencias Agroforestales – ETSIA (University of Seville, Spain). His research topics concern C and N dynamics in soils of semiarid environment; GHG emissions from agricultural soil; dynamics of soil microbial biomass and community structure under different management; nutrient recovery from treated wastewater; innovative biodegradable mulching films for a sustainable agriculture; genesis of calcic horizon. He teaches Agricultural chemistry, Chemical and physical soil analysis, Bioindicators of soil quality, Fertilization and plant nutrition. He is also member of the board of the international doctorate course in “Mediterranean Biodiversity”. He is currently leading the project “Soil biodegradation of nutrients enriched cellulose- and chitosan-derived mulching films for sustainable horticulture” funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and in the H2020 project “Achieving wider uptake of water-smart solutions”.

Roland Bol is a research team leader on soil organic matter dynamics and elemental cycles at the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Agrosphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany). He is also a Professor of Biogeochemistry at the School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University (UK) and holds the special visiting chair in Terrestrial Biogeochemistry at the University of Amsterdam (NL). He received his Ph.D. at the University of Bangor in Soil Science in 1994. His research is on complex biogeochemistry processes that occur at the soil-water-air interface in natural and agricultural ecosystems. His current funded projects deal with the role of colloids in heavy metals and phosphorus transfers from soil to water, micro and nano-plastics, rose waste composting, and nitrogen deposition around farms. 

Beatrice Giannetta is a researcher (RTDa) at University of Foggia. Her research is focused on the biogeochemical cycle of C and N in a variety of soils from different ecosystems. She is specifically interested in the formation and turnover of organo-mineral interactions in soils and sediments, related to the investigation of other relevant elements (e.g., Fe). Her recent research has dealt with the understanding of the mechanistic drivers of changes in soil organic C storage and the best practices to adopt in a world that is warming. She combines field and laboratory experiments with physical fractionations of soil and synchrotron-based spectroscopy analyses.  

Elisa Pellegrini achieved a PhD degree in Environmental Science in 2017 and was awarded a Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowship (H2020) at the University of Copenhagen in 2019. In 2021, she achieved the national award For Women In Science from L’Oréal-UNESCO and currently, she works at the University of Udine as assistant professor in the field of Soil Chemistry. Her research focuses on plant-soil interactions in flooded environments with a particular interest in plant feedback mechanisms on soil processes. Her work spans from the microscale of the plant-soil interface to the landscape scale, focusing on plant and soil response to abiotic stresses. From 2017, she has gained experience with microsensors, planar optodes and DGT - diffusive gradients in thin films – techniques. These innovative approaches allow to monitor spatially and temporarily several gases and ions at high resolution and are effective tools for studying the rhizosphere processes. She has a dedicated website with more details on techniques and research outcomes at https://plant-and-soil.com/.

Mariavittoria Verrillo is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Agricultural Sciences and CERMANU of the University of Naples Federico II. PhD in Agricultural and Agri-food sciences (XXXII cycle). She carried out research period abroad at the Department of Analytical Chemistry and Metabolomic Center of the University of Vienna. She was Principal Investigator of STAR 2018 (Pharmahumic Project) financed by UNINA and Compagnia San Paolo. She is holder of a teaching support contract for the course General and Organic chemistry AA 2023/24, of the Department of Biology UNINA. Her main research activities are focused on the extraction and chemical characterization of compost tea and humic substances from agro-food composted residues and evaluation of biostimulant, antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory features of organic extracts. Additionally, she works on combined metabolomic and lipidomic approaches by Orbitrap-Q-Elite of plants and the extraction and characterization of essential oils by GC-MS. Scopus ID: 57201662177.

Daniele Del Buono is an Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia. His main research focuses on the effect of biostimulants and plant extract on crops grown under normal and stress conditions (salinity and xenobiotic toxic compounds). He has studied the use of terrestrial and aquatic plants for the remediation of polluted waters (mainly by herbicides, nitrate and heavy metals) and the use of safeners and biostimulants to increase their phytoremediation potential. He has also been working on the valorization of agricultural waste, obtaining nanoscaled biopolymers, and biogenic synthesis of nanomaterials for applications in agriculture.

Andrea Ertani is an Associate Professor at the University of Torino. His current professional activities include teaching on horticultural and medicinal plant crops and supply chains, as well as research on the pre-harvest environmental factors' effect on the quality and safety of fresh and minimally processed products, specifically leafy vegetables and aromatic herbs, along the minimally processed product chain and in production and post-harvest processes. Special emphasis is given to hydroponics and innovative technologies for water-saving in plant production systems. His studies stem from the need to find new strategies to improve the quality of agricultural production, with particular attention to environmental preservation. In response to this need, studies on the effects of biostimulant compounds on plant metabolism were initiated in 2005.

Pasquale Carlino is an Application specialist and service engineer for IRMS and EA instruments at Elementar Italy Srl. In his current position he provides application assistance and service training for elemental analyzers and stable isotopes spectrometers. He joined Elementar on 2015 after 10 years of research activities at Dept. of Environmental Biology at La Sapienza University of Rome.  He holds a PhD in Ecological Sciences working on different ecosystems with a focus on biogeochemical cycling of elements.