The International Phytobiomes Conference 2026 will bring together a broad community of U.S. and international scientists from the public and private sector as well as agricultural stakeholders.
The Conference program will cover a wide range of topics related to phytobiomes and the list of speakers & panelists below reflects the interdisciplinarity of phytobiome science.
Plenary Speakers
Kwang-Hyung Kim
Seoul National University, KR
Kwang-Hyung Kim is a Professor at Seoul National University, South Korea, jointly affiliated with the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology and the Interdisciplinary Program in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. His research focuses on agro-climatic analytics, plant disease epidemiology, and climate-informed decision support systems for agriculture. Kim’s research integrates machine learning, explainable AI, remote sensing, and process-based modeling to improve crop yield prediction, plant disease forecasting, and agricultural risk assessment under changing climate conditions. His work emphasizes bridging advanced analytical approaches with field-level applicability and operational decision-making in real-world agricultural systems.
With over a decade of international consulting experience, he has collaborated with organizations including FAO, UNDP, CIAT, ADB, and KOICA to support the development of national agro-climatic services and digital agriculture systems across developing countries. His broader research vision centers on multidisciplinary and systems-based approaches that connect climate, crops, and agricultural management for resilient and sustainable food production.
Talk Title: Machine Learning Meets the Field: Agro-Climatic Analytics for a Changing Climate
Danica Lombardozzi
Colorado State University & National Center for Atmospheric Research, US
Danica Lombardozzi Danica Lombardozzi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University and a Project Scientist in the Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Her research integrates ecological observations with global-scale modeling to better understand how terrestrial ecosystems respond to and influence environmental change.
Her work has shown how ground-level ozone reduces ecosystem carbon storage, projected future shifts in food availability due to climate change, and evaluated agricultural practices that mitigate climate impacts while supporting food security. Lombardozzi leads the development of the agriculture module in the Community Land Model and co-founded the National Ozone Garden Network, where she directs community science efforts.
She earned a BA in Environmental Science from Colorado College and a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University.
Talk Title: Terrestrial Ecosystem Responses and Feedbacks to Changing Climate
Invited Speakers
Bridget Emmett
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK
Bridget Emmett is a Principal Scientist at UKCEH and leads the inter-disciplinary and multi-partner Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring and Modelling Programme(ERAMMP) funded by the Welsh Government since 2012 and is PI for a other projects which require a inter-disiplinary approach and a focus on policy evaluation and development. Bridget is a Trustee and recent Past President of the British Ecological Society and is a Member of the EU Mission Board for ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’.
Bridget was formerly UKCEH’s Science Area Head for Soils and Land Use (SLU), leading and managing more than 120 research staff and 40 postgraduate students across three UKCEH sites. Her research is often as the lead for projects requiring the coordination of a large number of partners to improve integration across different disciplines and sectors from catchment/landscape to national scale to improve the evidence base and support national policy development and outcome reporting in the areas of e.g. soil health, ecosystem services, agri-environment schemes and natural capital.
Bridget was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her Services to Soil and Ecosystem Sciences in 2023 and the Marsh Award for her Climate Change Research by the British Ecological Society in 2016. She has published over 184 ISI articles, has a H index of 66 (Scopus) and has a publication record with over 17,000 citations. She sits on a wide range of number of advisory boards both national and international for governments and research organisations. She served as the Specialist Adviser for the UK Parliamentary Inquiry into Soil Health in 2016.
Draft Talk Title: Soil Health, Agri-environment Schemes and Policy Evaluation and Development
Panelists
Industry Roundtable Discussion
