b'JAIME NOLASCO RODRGUEZ VZQUEZ, AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER AT AGROVEGETAL, SPAIN Jaime was born in 1995 in Paterna del Campo (Huelva), a small Andalusian grain-producing village, and he was interested in agriculture from a young age. His grandfather oversaw the "El Alpzar" farm and with him, and he learned the typical tasks of the field and the importance of cultivating varieties suitable for the climate of the area. During his studies at the University of Seville, he did his BSc project with the professors of plant breeding and decided to dedicate himself professionally to obtaining new varieties of cereals. In 2016, Jaime began doing internships with Agrovegetal as an Agricultural Technical Engineer. Later he has combined his work at Agrovegetal with the completion of the master\'s degree in agricultural engineering. He is cur-rently doing his industrial doctorate in the digitization of wheat rust severity data collection and is participating in various research projects such as WheatRes, TRENDING, RobigUS, etc. He has also participated in the Operational Groups TRIDURAND and CELEGAND. ELENA DEL PUP, MSC STUDENT IN PLANT BREEDING AT WAGENINGENEMILY TER STEEG, SEED NL,UNIVERSITY, THE NETHERLANDSTHE NETHERLANDS Elena comes from Italy, where she studiedEmily has worked for over a year with agricultural sciences at SantAnna SchoolSeedNL, a Dutch public-private partnership of Advanced Studies in Pisa. She worked atof the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry the Plant Treaty Secretariat in Rome and atof Agriculture, seed association Plantum the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund inand the Dutch Bonn, Germany, where she identified prom- ZARMEEN SALEEM, FINANCEPotato Organisation ising agribiotech start-ups. Elena is currentlyPROJECT MANAGER AT AGROMANto provide farm-doing her MSc internship at Stanford onCHEMICALS AND SEEDS, PAKISTAN ers with access computational discovery of plant naturalFood insecurity, burgeoning globalto quality seed products. My favourite definition of plantpopulation, and vulnerability to climateavailable in low- breeding is the science of generating diver- catastrophes may seem economic andand middle-income sity. Diversity is a unifying topic in my gen- social buzzwords to many; yet form thecountries. In paral-eration and a pervasive concept in plantacumen to Zarmeens shift to the seedlel, she works on breeding. What I love most about plantsector. With an ambition of transformingher PhD research breeding is the variety of stakeholders:traditional agriculture financing in Pakistanat Wageningen farmers, breeders, consumers, researchers,and our company serving as the outset,University on policymakers, large corporates, and small- she revolutionized the conventional paperthe impact of Dutch vegetable seed in sized start-ups. An open and trust-basedcheck system and pioneered a paymentvarious low-tech markets in Sub-Sahara dialogue between them is key to a healthyfacilitator along with digital wallet forAfrica looking at business strategies and food system. This is why she co-foundedrural farmers in collaboration with fintechseed sector development. Her first paper Progetto Bio[Tecno]Logico for scientificfirms. Her efforts have been instrumentalcalled Crucial factors for the feasibility communication, and she is on the board ofto the EU seed sector as well, since sheof commercial hybrid breeding in food . GeneSprout Initiative for youth-led advocacyvisits Europe for the actualization of ourcrops\' was published in Nature Plantson New Breeding Techniques. Currently,novel farming ventures there with multipleWhat I like so much about the sector she is focusing on empowering small localHungarian companies. In 2022, she collab- is that it links my interests in technology, non-profits by improving access to scientificorated with one of our Hungarian partnersagriculture and the relationship between knowledge and technologies. As founder ofin Martonvsr for hybrid corn seeddeveloped and emerging markets, Emily The Good Scientists, she is working with ain Pakistan. Being a Gen-Z employee,said. Moreover, the impact of seed on team of 12 passionate volunteers to makeher traits of open mindedness towardsglobal nutrition security is enormous: no plant science research actionable for socialincorporating technological advances inseed, no food. Climate change and demo-impact. We are creating an automatedany field of work inspired and motivatedgraphic changes result in such pressing matching platform to bridge science andother employees in managerial positionschallenges, seed might seem like the third sector. to assess their status quo and adopt tech- most basic thing, but it is also the start of based solutions.everything and part of the solution to so many global challenges. I want to be part of that!20IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'