Keynote Speaker 1: Nicholas Dickinson

Nicholas Dickinson is Professor of Ecology in the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences at our ELLS partner Lincoln University. He is a research leader in phytoremediation: harnessing natural processes associated with plants and soil rhizospheres for the clean-up of polluted and degraded environments. Nick’s keynote presentation, Agroecology: across disciplines and boundaries, will focus on multidisciplinary approaches and innovative ways in which biodiversity can be used to add value and future-proof agricultural soils and environments in New Zealand.

Keynote Speaker 2: Ingrid van Engelshoven

Ingrid van Engelshoven is a Dutch politician, management consultant and former civil servant. On 26 October 2017, Ingrid van Engelshoven was appointed as Minister for Education, Culture and Science in the Netherlands in Mark Rutte's third cabinet. She is a member of Democrats 66 (D66). She was the party chairwoman from May 2007 until March 2013, and has been a D66 alderman of the municipal council of The Hague.

Van Engelshoven studied political science at Radboud University Nijmegen and law at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Keynote Speaker 3: Mirte Bosse

Mirte Bosse is a self-claimed 'ecologist gone genomics'. She has a background in biology and ecology, but switched to genomics for her PhD in Animal Breeding and Genomics in Wageningen on 'the hybrid nature of pig genomes' (cum laude). After her PhD she combined her both passions with a postdoc in ecological genomics at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO). She recently received a competitive VENI grant and is now working on the negative impact of inbreeding from a genomics perspective. Her future lies within the novel field of conservation genomics, in which genomic tools are used to conserve endangered species. This year Dr Bosse was nominated as best scientific talent (top 25) from The Netherlands and Belgium by the newspaper New Scientist for her publication record and passion for outreach. 

In her keynote lecture Mirte will take us with her on a journey through the world of ecological genomics, from the grasslands in India where a critically endangered tiny pig species finds its home, all the way to the European back gardens where British love for bird feeding left its trace in the genomes of great tits.