Dr. Vicky Lévesque is a soil health scientist with expertise in agronomy, soil science, and agricultural microbiology, with a strong focus on horticultural systems. She obtained her BSc in Agronomy, MSc in Soil and Environmental Sciences, and PhD in Agricultural Microbiology from Université Laval (Québec, Canada). She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Agriculture and Agri‑Food Canada (AAFC) in Québec City. Through her graduate studies and postdoctoral research fellow, she developed an interdisciplinary research approach integrating soil physics, biochemistry, and microbiology to address key challenges in agricultural sustainability.

Since 2020, Dr. Lévesque has been a soil health scientist at AAFC in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Her research explores innovative soil management strategies—particularly biochar, compost, and wood‑chip amendments—to improve soil health, increase soil carbon sequestration, and enhance productivity in horticultural cropping systems. She also investigates sustainable, soil‑based approaches to mitigate pathogen pressures in perennial fruit crops, including apple orchards.

Dr. Lévesque is a dedicated mentor, managing a state-of-the-art research laboratory and guiding graduate students pursuing MSc and PhD degrees. She has been invited to speak at numerous national and international events and has contributed to community leadership, including co‑chairing a special session on Biochar as an Amendment in Temperate Soils at the 2018 Canadian Soil Science Society meeting. Since January 2026, she has served as Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Soil Science. She currently leads a national, industry‑supported project focused on improving the climate resilience of Nova Scotia vineyards and co‑leads initiatives within the Nova Scotia Agricultural Climate Solutions Living Lab addressing climate‑smart management practices in woody perennial horticultural crops.

Dr. Praveen K. Saxena is a Professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture and Director of the Gosling Research Institute for Plant Preservation (GRIPP) at the University of Guelph. His research focuses on the regulatory mechanisms underlying plant morphogenesis and stress tolerance, with applications in plant conservation and sustainable crop production. His work integrates advanced micropropagation, bioreactor technologies, controlled-environment systems, and stress-mitigation approaches to enable large-scale propagation of climate-resilient plants and support biodiversity conservation. His research program is highly collaborative, working closely with Parks Canada, Indigenous communities, and the horticulture industry to advance plant germplasm conservation and the ommercial propagation of economically important ornamental, medicinal, and food crops.

Dr. Gurpreet Singh Selopal is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, at Dalhousie University, and the founder of the Sustainable Nanoengineering lab (SNL). Dr. Selopal is a Licensed Professional Engineer. He is a well-established nanotechnologist in the field of sustainable energy conversion/storage, environmental remediation, and smart agriculture technologies. His research projects focus on advanced nanoengineering of multifunctional quantum materials, nanofabrication, and architectural design optimization to make these technologies more reliable, economically viable, and affordable for net-zero transitions. He has 90+ peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals (Adv. Energy Mater., Nano Energy, Adv. Sci., Chem. Eng. J., Adv. Funct. Mater., etc.). He serves as a reviewer for 30+ journals and several provincial/federal funding agencies. Dr. Selopal has an impressive record of training HQP in different technologies.

Dr. Harrison Wright, joined AAFC in his current capacity as a Research Scientist in 2017; however, he has been affiliated with AAFC research (e.g., student, grad student, terms) for over 25 years. His formative years were spent growing up on a mixed family farm (apples, strawberries and hay). Harrison’s research spans both Plant and Postharvest Physiology in relation to woody perennials (e.g., apples, pears, blueberries and wine grapes). A frequent focus of this research involves the primary production and long-term storage potential of fruit in the context of weather extremes and climate change.

Harrison holds a certification in Engineering (Mount Allision University, NB), a BSc in Physics and a BA in English (Acadia University, NS), a MSc in Agriculture and a PhD in Plant Physiology (Dalhousie University, NS) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Postharvest Physiology (Laval University, QC).

Dr. Mary Ruth McDonald is a professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture, at the University of Guelph. Her research and outreach activities focus on vegetable crops, with an emphasis on vegetables on muck soils, the management of plant diseases, integrated pest management and sustainable crop production. This includes the use of drones for monitoring plant disease and the assessment of agricultural robots and other new technologies for vegetable crops. Her research group also conducts basic and applied research on clubroot on canola and brassica vegetables. Dr. McDonald teaches a portion of the undergraduate Introduction to Plant Agriculture and team teaches a graduate course in plant disease epidemiology. She has advised or co-advised over 35 M.Sc. students and 10 Ph.D.’s. Her research has been recognized by numerous invitations to speak at national and international grower meetings and scientific conferences, and by a number of awards, including the International Excellence in Integrated Pest Management award in 2015, and the Outstanding Research award from the Canadian Phytopathological Society in 2021.

Dr. Shawkat Ali is a Research Scientist at Kentville Research and Development Centre with Agriculture and Agri‑Food Canada. His research program focuses on diseases of tree fruits and small fruits. In tree fruit systems, his group works on apple summer diseases, apple sudden death, and apple replant disease. He also leads research on several fungal and viral diseases affecting small fruits. Dr. Ali’s group has a strong interest in developing alternative and sustainable disease management strategies to support both tree fruits and small fruit production. 

Dr. Ali completed his Master’s degree in Biotechnology from Quaid-i-Azam University and his Ph. D in Botany at the University of British Columbia. Following his Ph, D., he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Sherbrooke and as a visiting scientist at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Research and Development Centre Québec. He later completed another post-doctoral fellowship at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Ali also held short-term visiting scientist position at the Max-Plank Institute of Molecular Physiology in Potsdam, Germany, and at the Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, in the UK.