Program

Dr. Andrew F. Bent is Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA. He received his B.A. from Oberlin College in 1983 and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1989. His research focuses on the molecular basis of plant immunity and disease resistance, including soybean resistance to soybean cyst nematode, the novel genetic structures and resistance mechanisms underlying Rhg1, the discovery that R genes encode NLR proteins, key findings on PTI immune receptors and poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation in plant defense, and contributions to the establishment of Arabidopsis and P. syringae as a model pathosystem. He was elected an AAAS Fellow in 2014.

Dr. Jianxin Ma is Professor and Indiana Soybean Alliance Chair in Soybean Improvement in the Department of Agronomy and Center for Plant Biology at Purdue University, USA. He received his B.S. from Laiyang Agricultural University in 1993, his M.S. from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1996, and his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1999. His research focuses on soybean structural and functional genomics, including genome evolution, domestication, and the genes and regulatory networks underlying key agronomic traits. He was elected an AAAS Fellow in 2018, and his group has made important contributions to understanding small-RNA-mediated regulation of soybean nodulation.

Dr. Murukarthick Jayakodi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University and a researcher with Texas A&M AgriLife Research in Dallas, Texas, USA. He earned his B.Tech. from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 2010, his M.S. from Seoul National University in 2014, and his Ph.D. from Seoul National University in 2018. His research examines the genetic basis of phenotypic variation and disease resistance in legumes and perennial grasses, with the goal of enabling predictive, genome-informed crop improvement. He has contributed to major genomics resources and breeding tools in legumes and was awarded the 2022 Leibniz Best Minds: Leibniz Junior Research Groups prize.

Dr. Stig Uggerhøj Andersen is Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Aarhus University, Denmark. He received his MSc in Molecular Biology from Aarhus University in 2002 and his PhD in Molecular Biology from Aarhus University in 2004. His research investigates natural variation in legumes, especially Lotus japonicus, white clover, and faba bean, to identify signatures of selection and uncover the genetic basis of important traits, with particular emphasis on plant-microbe interactions. His group combines high-throughput sequencing, bioinformatics, and experimental validation to study legume interactions with rhizobia and soil microbial communities.

Dr. Xuelu Wang is a Chang Jiang Scholar at Henan University, Zhengzhou, China. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 2000 and completed postdoctoral research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. His research spans soybean biology, plant hormone signaling networks, growth and development, energy sensing, biological nitrogen fixation, and soybean-microbe interactions. He has led major research projects supported by national funding agencies in China and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals.

Dr. Cheng-Ruei Lee is Professor in the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at National Taiwan University, Taiwan. He received his Bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan Normal University in 2005 and his Ph.D. from Duke University in 2013. His research focuses on the population genetics of crop evolution, including the spatiotemporal patterns of domestication and post-domestication expansion, the interplay among crop genetics, archaeology, and human culinary culture, and complex domestication processes involving human selection, ecological adaptation, and secondary wild-cultigen hybridization in Asian legumes such as adzuki (Vigna angularis) and mungbean (V. radiata). He was elected an EMBO Global Investigator in 2020 and has received multiple national research awards in Taiwan.

Dr. Michael Udvardi is Professor of Legume Genomics with the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at the University of Queensland, Australia. He earned his Ph.D. in plant biochemistry from the Australian National University in 1989. His research focuses on how plants acquire nitrogen for growth. He has contributed to the understanding of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes, especially of nitrogen transport and metabolism in root nodules, using biochemical, molecular, genetic, and genomic approaches. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 for his contributions to legume biology, especially symbiotic nitrogen fixation

Dr. Myriam Charpentier is Professor in the Cell and Developmental Biology Department at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK. She completed her MSc in Plant Genetics and Biotechnology at the University of Paris VII, France, and her PhD in Plant Genetics and Molecular Biology at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany. Her research investigates how plant cell nuclei generate and interpret calcium signals in response to biotic, abiotic, nutritional, and developmental cues, with key discoveries on the molecular basis and evolution of nuclear calcium signaling, its role in root development, and the mechanisms controlling endosymbiosis-mediated nuclear calcium signaling. She received the Adam Kondorosi Academia Europaea Award for Early-Career Investigators in 2025 in recognition of her groundbreaking contributions to plant calcium signaling and root endosymbiosis.

Dr. Sukhjiwan Kaur is Research Leader in Plant Genetic Improvement at Agriculture Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, and Principal Research Fellow (joint appointment) at La Trobe University. She received her B.S. from Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, in 1997, her M.S. from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India, in 2000, and her Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 2006. Her research integrates genomics, quantitative genetics, statistical modelling, and high-throughput phenotyping to improve yield stability, stress tolerance, and climate resilience. Dr. Kaur has led Australian contributions to multiple international genome sequencing consortia for lentil, pea, and faba bean. She currently serves as a Member of the Board of the Australasian Plant Breeding Association.