OUR TEAM
Dr. Manfredo J. Seufferheld has more than 25 years of experience working in interactions between organisms and the environment linked to problems of agricultural nature and stress responses, as well as managing and sustaining multiple collaborations and agreements with public or private entities. He has published more than 30 papers in peer review journals. In addition, he has previous entrepreneurial experience as founder and CEO of a startup company in the area of ornamental horticulture. His experience in agribusiness involved customer perception of technology in agriculture to guide strategies for customer education and acquisition of GM products, and in strategic planning and gap analysis Dr. Seufferheld oversees budget decisions, resource allocation, building strategic partnerships, building and maintaining relationships with new and potential customers, and acquiring financial resources for FrostDefense.
Dr. Gabriel R. Burks is a materials scientist who has acquired significant academic & research experience and an extensive professional network.
Dr. Andres Prada – Head of Analytics Innovation- is a civil engineer with experience in multidisciplinary research projects that require the analysis of complex data and numerical simulations. Dr Prada analyzes climatological, microclimate, and phenological data, and the implementation of models to support the Decision Support System.
Julio Tilleria -Head of Business Media and Communication – is a system engineer that has participated in the steering committee of the USDA GRIN Global project and in FAO consulting. His experience includes design and administration of databases of biological information systems and development of desktop and web applications. Julio is establishing a strong social media marketing presence, business-level communications and website maintenance.
COLLABORATORS
Dr. Markus Keller is a Distinguished Professor in Viticulture at Washington State University -IAREC. His research focuses on the developmental and environmental factors and vineyard management practices as they influence crop physiology of wine and juice grapes. He investigates scion-rootstock interactions, grape development and water relations during fruit ripening, irrigation and crop load management, yield formation, and cold hardiness.
Dr. Rabin Bhattarai is an Associate Professor of Soil and Water Resources Engineering in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at UIUC. He received PhD in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from UIUC in 2011, MS in Water Engineering Management from Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand in 2005, and BS in Civil Engineering from Tribhuvan University, Nepal in 2002. The overall goal of our research group is to develop sustainable engineering solutions to improve water quality and crop production. Along with conducting laboratory, field, and watershed scale studies, our group also works on evaluating, modifying and developing simulation models for predicting water quantity at various scales.
CONSULTANTS
Dr. Luis Mejia has over 30 years in the food/feed industry, and government relations experience in the areas of food science and technology, product development, food legislation and regulatory compliance. He has strong interactions with internal marketing, product development and legal departments and externally with government agencies, trade organizations and international health organizations such as CODEX.
INTERNS
Daniel Hess -Lab assistant- is a recent graduate from University of Illinois in bioengineering. he also work in a cancer research lab where his primary interests are iron metabolism and bioinformatics.
Jeffrey Kim is currently an Undergraduate at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign studying Molecular and Cellular Biology.
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Dr. Francina Dominguez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois. One of her areas of expertise is in the effects of climate change on hydrologic extremes, including analyses of downscaled future climate projections. She is currently assisting in the developing our predictive analytics.
Dr. Robert A. Easter is an agriculturist who developed his career at the University of Illinois in leadership roles including Chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign Campus, and University of Illinois System President. He consulted extensively with the private sector in agriculture both domestically and internationally and worked with faculty involved in start-up enterprises, including serving on the board of a Farm Credit Association bank, director for Agrible, and advisor for Serra Capital III, a venture fund in agricultural technology.
Dr. Carlos Torelli is a professor of marketing, associate head of the department of business administration, and James F. Towey Faculty Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His areas of expertise include global branding, cross-cultural consumer behavior, self-regulation, and persuasion. He will advise us on marketing and commercialization strategy for our developed products.
Dr. Russell Smithyman received his Ph.D. in horticulture from Washington State University, and his M.S. in horticulture from Michigan State University. He most recently served as the Director of Viticulture for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates in Prosser, WA. Prior to this, he held the position of Research Viticulturist and then director of Research at Ste. Michelle. His research interests include irrigation management, vine stress management, vineyard mechanization, varietal and clonal evaluation, and precision viticulture.
Dr. Smithyman is actively involved in vineyard sustainability programs and currently serves as the Board Chair of LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology). He is a graduate of the Washington AgForestry Leadership Program and frequently participates in lobbying to congress for research funding for the Northwest Center for Small Fruits. Russ has been a strong advocate for grape and wine research and has participated in the National Grape Research Alliance (NGRA) since its inception. He now currently serves as the NGRA Board Chair.
Dr. Oscar Sanabria Garro is a professor at Business School, UNED Costa Rica and professor of agribusiness at the National Technical University at Atenas Costa Rica, a financial consultant on agribusiness and entrepreneur. He has experience in business management with an emphasis in quantitative commercial risk analysis, agribusiness, and modeling for corporate governance and stakeholders. He will advise us on strategies to improve our market competitiveness.
Dr. Brian Jewett is a Research Scientist in the Atmospheric Sciences Department at the University of Illinois who has interests in weather analysis and forecasting, and numerical weather prediction. He will provide his expertise to help further FrostDefense Envirotech strengths in intermediate weather forecasting and weather data analytic