Pesticide Application
JOIN AAB / RENEW
WHY JOIN AAB?
‘The Pesticide Application group was established in 1980 and is concerned with the many aspects of biological, chemical and physical interactions of application technology. The group’s activities over the years have centered around regular one-day workshops that focus on a different aspect of pesticide application in turn. Such topics as spray drift, the use of air assistance in arable crops and reduced volume application rates have featured in the past.
As industry has adopted electronic control, the group mirrored this with events concerning the advances that global information systems can offer the applied biologist. The production of food or fuel crops and the factors influencing production are equally global.
Since 2000 the group has catered for the many facets of pesticide application around the world by organising the biennial “International Advances in Pesticide Application” conference where subjects as diverse as mosquito and vector control, robotic weed seekers, deposition of chemicals in crop canopies and contamination of operators are presented and debated.
As we move into an era where sustainability is demanded, where productivity of food and industrial crops compete for land and bio-pesticides increase in their significance; the group offers scientists working in the field of application technology the opportunity to meet discuss and transfer knowledge in an informal atmosphere. The group always welcomes new ideas and interests from AAB members.
Group Convener
Emilio Gil Moya
Full Professor (accredited) of Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain). Director of Agricultural Mechanization Research Group. Professor at PhD program in agriculture and forestry at the University of Turin, in Italy. Project Coordinator of the INNOSETA (Horizon 2020 R&D program). Advisor to different national and international research bodies and institutes, as well as to the Ministry of Agriculture in the implementation of Sustainable Use of Pesticides, and author of the Manual of Inspections of application equipment. Academic member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors. Dr. Gil has been professor at Cornell University (USA, and is author of more than 50 scientific articles in international journals and more than 200 technical and popular articles, as well as different books in the field of engineering agri-food. Editor and expert reviewer of scientific journals in the sector and has given numerous international conferences. Member of different organizations in the field of agri-food engineering, the researcher has received different awards. President of the international Award of FIMA and president of AESAVE (Asociación Española de Sanidad Vegetal). He has been director of the Aragon Government office in Brussels (2016).
Group Members
Paolo Balsari
Paolo is the Director of the Department of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Economics and Engineering (DEIAFA) at the University of Turin, Italy.
Colin Mountford-Smith
colin.mountford-smith@basf.com
Colin Mountford-Smith is Agronomy Manager for BASF Agricultural Solutions, supporting advisors & growers in the Midlands and North West
David Nuyttens
david.nuyttens@ilvo.vlaanderen.be
Leader of the Spray Tech group at ILVO in Belgium. He manages several national and international projects dealing with pesticide and fertiliser application technology and UAV-based remote sensing. He is responsible for BELAC accredited Spray Tech Lab and supervises the Mandatory inspection of sprayers in Flanders.
Clare Butler-Ellis
Clare Butler Ellis has worked in agricultural engineering research since 1986, and has been involved with application techniques for pesticides since 1994. She now leads the team in Silsoe Spray Applications Unit. She has an international reputation for research into nozzle performance and characterisation, spray behaviour and modelling of spray drift with an extensive publication record. She has experience of international research, through collaborations with European countries and the USA. Clare has managed and worked on a diverse range of research projects, including EU, Defra, Innovate UK, AHDB, fully-funded commercial contract research, with funders from the UK, Europe and world-wide.
Clare has a PhD in physics, is a Fellow of the Institution of Agricultural Engineering, a Chartered Physicist and a Chartered Environmentalist.
Rena Isemer
Rena Isemer is an Ecotoxicology Expert for Non-Target Terrestrial Plants (since 2015) and Science Fellow at the Research and Development Division of Bayer Crop Science in Germany. She is chairing a working group on risk assessment and risk mitigation of the EUPAF team (European Precision Application task Force) and leads the SETAC Plants Interest Group (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry). As an active member of the Crop Life Europe DARM (Digital Agriculture and Risk Mitigation) and plants ad-hoc team, she is involved in many activities around the topics of precision application, drift and plant ecotoxicology. Rena holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany (2013).
Richard Glass
richard.glass@chap-solutions.co.uk
Richard is Innovation Hub Lead at CHAP. He has over 30 years of experience working with R&D projects and field trials dealing with crop protection with a wide range of crops and climatic zones for both the private and public sector.
Richard gained his first degree in Biology at Manchester University, with post graduate studies in Crop protection and Analytical Chemistry. Over 25 years experience with crop protection related research in Europe and Latin America. Specialist areas are pesticide application and safety, occupational and bystander/resident exposure, biopesticide delivery and sustainable production. He is Fluent in Spanish, having worked with coffee leaf rust control in Colombia and extensively with intensive horticulture in Spain
James Thomas
James works as part of the EAME Sustainable Responsible Business team at Syngenta with a focus on Application Technology. In his current role, James looks at how to best use and apply Syngenta’s portfolio of products on a farm scale using a combination of technology and machinery; developing practical intergrated solutions that deliver the optimum balance of product efficacy, farm efficency and environmental safety.
James has been working for Syngenta for 5 years after completing a Master of Agricultural Engineering degree from Harper Adams University. Whilst there he spent much of his time researching and building agricultural robots; including Dionysus, a vineyard scouting robot . Further to this he spent a sandwich year in industry working for JCB, where he was involved with the test and development of the iconic JCB Fastrac tractor. He has a practical farming experience across the world including Europe, Australia and New Zealand, James is passionate about ensuring new solutions are easy to implement, robust in use and ultimately add value to the customer.