Welcome!

I am a Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at Wageningen University and Research, in the Netherlands.

On my website you may find about my research team, grants, teaching and publications.

Since late 2022, I co-founded and coordinate the AgMIP Machine Learning team AgML. More on our activities and how to join at agml.org.

News!

• Resource news article on How AI can be used in education summarizes the findings of the ICAB 2024 conference, and gives a hint of my keynote speech!

• My team and I move to the newly established Artificial Intelligence chairgroup of Wageningen University and Research. We will join forces with the teams of Ricardo da Silva Torres and Anna Fensel at the Plant Sciences Group!

• Really excited to join the upcoming FA Next panel on Exploring New Horizons in Food through Artificial Intelligence! FA Next connects food and agriculture startups to investors, serving as a springboard to greater innovation and a better deal for all. Looking forward to some lively interactions!

• Happy to be part of the FSI - from data to intelligence project, which was selected for funding by the Wageningen Global Sustainability Programme! We will develop a collaborative knowledge system for food and nutritional security in Africa, and I am really excited that we have a new PhD position opening in the next academic year with my team!

• The 1st AgML workshop in Wageningen was a great success. A short summary appeared at the WUR webpage!

Agenda

I am involved in (the organization of) the following events:

• Area chair, NeurIPS 2024 Datasets and Benchmarks track, 38th Conf. on Neural Information Processing Systems, Dec 10-16, 2024, Vancouver, CA.

• Keynote speaker on Plant phenomics in the AI era, 2024 UK Plant Phenomics Town Hall and Conference, Sept. 4-5, 2024, Warwick, UK.

• Invited speaker Exploring new horizons in food through artificial intelligence, 9th F&A NEXT Summit, May 22-23, 2024, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

• Local organizer and primary representative, Open Modeling Foundation Members Council Meeting, May 15-16, 2024, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

• Keynote speaker on Machine Learning and EO for Agriculture, EO for agriclulture under pressure, 2024 ESA-ESRIN Workshop, May 13-16, 2024, Frascati, Italy.

• Local organizer, PHENET Annual Project Meeting, April 23-25, 2024, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

• Guest lecture on Process-based models and machine learning - Friends or foes?, PERC Graduate course on Crop Modelling and Climate Change, March 10, 2024, Ede, The Netherlands.

• Main organizer, AgML 1st Workshop - AgMIP research team on Machine Learning for agricultural modelling, January 22-24, 2024, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

• Keynote speaker on AI for sustainability, National Collaboration of Academic Science Education Centres (ICAB 2024), February 29-Mar 1, 2024, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

• Invited speaker, panel on technologies for dealing with natural disasters, 12th Agrotechnology Conference, American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, February 23, 2024, Thessaloniki, Greece.

• Area chair, NeurIPS 2023 Datasets and Benchmarks track, 37th Conf. on Neural Information Processing Systems, Dec 10-16, 2023, New Orleans, USA.

Recent journal articles

• Domain adaptation with transfer learning for pasture digital twins, published in Environmental Data Science

• ChromaX: a fast and scalable breeding program simulator, published in Bioinformatics

• Crop modeling frameworks interoperability through bidirectional source code transformation, published in Environmental Modelling & Software

• A weakly supervised framework for high-resolution crop yield forecasts, published in Environmental Research Letters

• How do countries frame climate change? A global comparison of adaptation and mitigation in UNFCCC National Communications, published in Regional Environmental Change

Full list of publications.

Academic Service

Academic Journal Editorial Boards

• Socio-Environmental Systems Modelling, (Board member, previously founding Managing Editor).

• Environmental Modelling and Software, (Board member, previously Editor).

Project Scientific Advisory Boards

• SUSCAP (Developing resource use efficiency for crops under future climate extremes and air quality), EU H2020 ERA-Net Cofund Action, (2019-).

• AnaEE (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems), European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures, (2019-).

• New Zealand Bioeconomy in the Digital Age (Harnessing the power of digital technologies to enable the transformation of New Zealand Food Systems), AgResearch, New Zealand, (2020-2022).

• BEACON (Boosting Agricultural Insurance based on Earth Observation data), H2020 Research and Innovation Action, (2019-2022).

• IS-GEO Intelligent Systems for Geo-Sciences, EarthCube Research Coordination Network (NSF, USA), (2018-2022).

My website

This is my web office! I have developed this habit to totally restructure my website every couple of years, as an excuse to sharpen my web development skills. Nowadays, I am porting my website from Wordpress to Jekyll, while changing hosts, so please be patient!