People
Partners
Agrosavia, Colombia
leads the cacao research group at Agrosavia, focusing on the genomics of cacao. Her group also includes , , and Deisy Toloza.
Cartagena Botanical Garden Guillermo Pineres, Colombia
is Director of and Professor of Botany at the ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of the Andes, with interests in plant systematics, horticulture and conservation.
Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), Costa Rica
and run the cacao research group at .
Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France
was the first to publish a cacao genome and continues to work on genomics of the species at the Institute that focuses on the genetic improvement and adaptation of Mediterranean and tropical plants at .
Cocoa Research Centre (CRC), ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of West Indies, Trinidad
is Head of the Cocoa Research Centre and Professor in Genetics at the . He is responsible for policy, strategic direction, and governance of the Cocoa Research Centre, in addition to curation of the genebank and outreach.
Instituto de Cultivos Tropicales (ICT), Peru
Dr Enrique Arevalo manages the cacao research program at Instituto de Cultivos Tropicales ().
Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuaria (INIAP), Ecuador
Dr Rey Gaston Loor is responsible for the field development and co-management of research projects in cocoa and coffee at Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (), Ecuador.
National Botanic Garden, Ireland
is Living Collections Curator at the . His interests include the conservation of the flora of Ireland and Oman, ethnobotany of Oman, and the promotion of botanic gardens and horticulture as essential tools in global plant conservation. Further details and .
National Museum of Natural History and U.S. National Herbarium, Smithsonian Institution, USA
has maintained a broad interest in the systematics and nomenclature of Malvaceae throughout his career including the curation and improvement of the Theobroma collection assembled by the late Dr. José Cuatrecasas.
Oman Botanic Garden, Oman
is Head of Botany and Conservation and a senior field botanist at the , and acts as the Oman Focal Point for the Middle East Green Initiative.
Sultan Qaboos ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, Oman
is interested in food security in harsh environments, rural and human development and agroforestry at .
Universidad del Rosario, Colombia
is a representative of the Social Studies of Sciences, Technologies and Professions group at and leads the Social Studies of Nutrition and Food research group. He co-supervises Carolina Bonilla's PhD on the cultural history of cacao cultivation.
is Director of the Biology Program at Rosario ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã with interests in functional ecology, plant-insect mutualisms and cacao pollination.
Universidade de São Paulo - Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (USP-CENA), Brasil
is a plant molecular geneticist who has worked extensively on cacao including their fungal pathogens, particularly witches’ broom, at .
Universidade de São Paulo - Instituto de Biociências, Brasil
is Professor of Botany at the Insitute of Biosciences at the ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Sao Paulo where his research focuses on the systematics, evolution and biogeography of vascular plants. He was the principal supervisor of Matheus Colli Silva's PhD.
ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of California Los Angeles, USA
is Co-director of the, . His research examines the evolution, ecology, and conservation of biodiversity.
ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã College Cork, Ireland
Dr Barbara Doyle Prestwich is a plant geneticist interested in the transformation of crop plants. She is Head of Plant Science at the School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences at UCC.
ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of East Anglia (UEA), UK & ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Siena, Italy
i models consumer preference data and develops projects aimed at valuing environmental-related risks through the value of statistical life index as well as natural capital and ecosystem services assessment and management tools at and the ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Siena.
ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Miami, USA
is a professor in the . She uses phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequence data in combination with information from morphology, anatomy, and ecology to understand the timing and direction of changes in floral and vegetative traits, geographic distribution, and diversification rates. She has a longstanding interest in Theobroma cacao, and its relatives.
is a PhD student at the . She is interested in maximizing the use of natural history collections and demonstrating this to the public using data visualization, microscopy and educational technology. Click to see some of her very cool images of cacao flowers.
Universidad Nacional, Colombia
is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the . His research interests are directed towards understanding the relationships between crops and their associated microbiota, investigating how these relationships confer phenotypic plasticity to the host and influence plant evolution.
Vilnius ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã, Lithuania
is based at the , with interests in plant phylogeography, mutualisms, genomics, and evolution.
Zurich ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland
is based at the and is interested in post-harvest processing of cocoa beans and the assessment of new products from cacao wild relatives.