Born in Argentina, studied biology in Argentina and Germany. Currently Professor at the Universities of Tours (Frande) and Buenos Aires (Argentina; Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (UK). Specialised in animal behavioural physiology and sensory ecology, his research activities focus on the study of the adaptations to the haematophagous life of arthropods, using an integrative approach. The research models include mosquitoes, kissing bugs, lice, ticks and other blood-sucking groups, developing his research at the Research Institute in Insect Biology (IRBI-UMR7261-CNRS).

Joanna Souza-Fabjan graduated in Veterinary Medicine, earned a MS in Animal Science, and a DSc degree from the Ceará State University, Brazil, and INRAE, France in the field of reproductive physiology and biotechnology. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Veterinary School of Fluminense Federal University, in Brazil, where she got a permanent position as Professor in 2017. Her research interests have been revolving around reproductive biotechnologies in farm animals and her studies have been supported by major Brazilian funding agencies. 

INRAE senior scientist, I lead the Sensory Ecology department of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences of Paris. My research focuses on insect chemoreception in a context of plant protection. My objectives are to decipher the molecular mechanisms of olfaction and taste, to study the contribution of chemoreception to insect adaptation, with the final aim to develop innovative biocontrol solutions against harmful insects.

I am an immuno-pharmacologist (PhD) and senior research scientist at the INRAE (Val de Loire). My research focuses on identifying and characterizing mediators of inflammation and the role of the intestinal microbiota in the chicken mucosal immune response to influenza virus along the “gut-lung axis”. Host’s effector mechanisms necessary to deal with infection are not necessarily the same that will exacerbate inflammation and drive disease.

Éverton Kort Kamp Fernandes is and Associate Professor of Parasitology at the UFG, and a researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) of Brazil. His main research interest is the biological control of ticks with entomopathogenic fungi, with emphasis in fungal formulation, efficacy of bioproducts, tolerance of entomopathogenic fungi to environmental stresses, and defence mechanisms of ticks to fungal infection. He hods a degree in Veterinary Medicine, and a master's and PhD in Veterinary Science from Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro.

I am a biologist originally from the UK (BSc Southampton, MSc Bristol, PhD Imperial), having worked at EMBRAPA and the Universities of Amsterdam, Gloucestershire and now Viçosa. I have worked on arthropod-pathogenic fungi for classical and inundative biological control programmes (cassava green mite and locusts) and more recently on fungi associated with leafcutter ants.

Dr Italo Delalibera Jr. is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Acarology at the University of São Paulo in Piracicaba-SP, Brazil. Ph.D. in Entomology at Cornell University (1998-2002) and post-doctorate research associate at the University of Wisconsin (2002-2003). His leading research is on microbe-arthropod interactions, with an emphasis on microbial control of agricultural pests.

Johanna Mappes is an evolutionary ecologist and her research focuses on predator-prey interactions, aposematic signals and mimicry in chemically defended prey and the evolution of signal polymorphism. Her main study species is the polymorphic, aposematic wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) and their bird predators. Her lab consists of researchers from the fields of molecular biology, sensory ecology, chemical ecology, behavioral ecology and evolutionary ecology.