Keynote speakers

Franco Bostal

Grupo de Estudios en Conservación y Manejo (GEKKO), Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina

I completed my Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences at Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina) in 2022. That same year, I started my PhD project, focusing on integrating demographic and management knowledge of a feral horse population within a socio-ecological framework. My aim is to propose alternatives to mitigate their impact in Tornquist Park, a protected mountain grassland area. I use demographic rates to develop population models that allow me to simulate different management strategies. At the same time, I apply various methods—surveys, interviews, and workshops—to understand diverse perspectives on this complex conservation issue. In addition to my research, I work as a university teaching assistant and am actively involved in several science communication projects.

Daniel Vitales Serrano

Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB, CSIC-CMCNB)

He is a postdoctoral researcher in the Evolutionary Biology, Genome Organisation, and Plant Uses group at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona. His research focuses on plant evolution, spanning genomic and ecological perspectives. He integrates diverse scientific approaches, including cytogenetics, genomics, molecular phylogenetics, biogeography, and niche modeling, to address complex questions in plant sciences. Daniel has published more than 40 research papers on various topics in plant science, has supervised six MSc students and is currently mentoring two PhD candidates. His current project investigates the genomic interplay between hybridization and invasiveness, using Kalanchoe and Carpobrotus as model systems.

Ingrid M. Parker

Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California Santa Cruz

Her research lab studies plant evolutionary ecology, biological invasions and restoration ecology, and plant disease ecology. She is a Lifetime Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and she was awarded the first Jean H. Langenheim Endowed Chair in Plant Ecology and Evolution at UC Santa Cruz. She actively engages with restoration practitioners and served many years on the Board of Directors of the international NGO Island Conservation. She is currently the Faculty Director of the Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History, and she thinks everyone should spend more time outdoors!

Susan Canavan

University of Galway, Ireland

Currently, Susan works as a consultant contractor, collaborating with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Penn State University to use online data for horizon scanning and the early detection of potential invasive species. She is particularly interested in emerging technologies and analytical techniques, such as computational lexicology, to analyze human behavior and cultural trends through digitized data from platforms like Twitter, Wikipedia, Google, and YouTube.
She received a BSc in Ecology and Economics from the University of Guelph, Canada, and a PhD from the Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, where she studied the social dimensions of biological invasions, specifically the impact of cultivation of invasive bamboo. She has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Florida, assessing the environmental risks of hemp legalization, and at the Czech Academy of Sciences, where she applied iEcology and culturomics to analyze invasive species patterns using digital data. She also had a postdoctoral position at the University of Galway, looking at the connection between species extinctions and public awareness via online interest.