Phytobiomes Conference 2026: Focus on Day 3
Thursday 5 November | Translating Phytobiomes Science from Lab to Field
🚜 What does it take for phytobiomes science to work at scale?
On Day 3 of the Conference, several talks will tackle that question. Early Career Award recipient Lauren Hemara will share how she screened nearly 200 soil microbes to find those that survive the journey from factory to field. Kari Dunfield will propose a framework for judging when nitrogen-fixing inoculants for cereals really deliver, and Kara Reardon will ask what makes on-farm compost teas work.
Van Schepler-Luu will show how rice bred to resist disease can also emit less methane, and Julia Kelliher will present community-driven guidelines that help the field build on its own results. Other talks will show how orchard practices reshape citrus microbiomes and yields.
From root-on-chip microscopy to multi-season field trials, moving science from lab to field takes collaboration across disciplines.
The day will open with Danica Lombardozzi on how land management, air quality and climate change shape ecosystems, and how ecosystems feed back on the climate. At midday, participants’ votes will decide the Best Poster Awards, sponsored by the U.S. Culture Collection Network.
The conference will close with a roundtable on the changing workforce landscape: the skills employers look for, how those needs are changing, and what matters most to early career scientists when choosing their next step. LaKisha Odom (FFAR) will moderate, with Anastassia Khrouchtchova (Novo Nordisk Foundation), Nichole Ginnan (UC Riverside), Adrien Frémont (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and Kari Dunfield (University of Guelph).
📅 Thursday 5 November | Niagara-on-the-Lake
⏳ Registration closes this Thursday, 29 October
→ Register: https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/register/event/76924