Dr. Bennett’s research interests are in the developmental control of cell wall assembly and disassembly, carbohydrate metabolism and fruit development. Bennett has published over 120 research papers in leading scientific journals and is a regular speaker at Universities, international symposia and private companies. He also holds several utility patents related to crop quality traits and consults widely on scientific and intellectual property issues in agricultural biotechnology. Bennett earned a B.Sc. degree at the University of California Davis in 1977 and Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1983, both in the field of plant biology. Upon completing postdoctoral research at Cornell, he returned to UC Davis to teach and conduct research in plant molecular biology. Bennett also held a visiting appointment at the Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique d' Toulouse in 1997 and belongs to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Plant Biology, the Association of University Technology Managers and the Licensing Executives Society. Dr. Bennett is also the executive director of the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, PIPRA, and Associate Vice Chancellor at the Office of Research and Technology and Industry Alliances at University of California Davis.
Cecilia Chi-Ham, a native of Honduras, Central America, earned a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry and Environmental Sciences at the University of the Ozarks, USA and a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Southern Mississippi, USA. In 2004, upon completing postdoctoral work at Michigan State University in the field of plant biology, Dr. Chi-Ham joined the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, PIPRA. As a plant biologist interested in facilitating agricultural innovations, particularly in developing countries, Dr. Chi-Ham leads PIPRA’s Biotechnology Resources Program. The Biotechnology Resources program’s activities include developing research tools with maximum freedom-to-operate to support a wide array of agricultural applications for humanitarian and commercial purposes, facilitating technology transfer, building new partnerships and research collaborations, and providing legal information on biotechnology tools. The program’s multi-disciplinary activities straddle the delicate junction between science, legal, business development, and regulatory affairs necessary for the research and development of new agricultural innovations in developed and developing countries.
Dr. Fernández earned a Ph.D. in Vegetal Physiology from the University of California, Davis in 1978 and a MBA from Golden Gate University, Sacramento in 1998. He acted as Associated Professor at Facultad de Agronomia, Universidad de Chile from 1968 to 1973. Dr. Fernández has performed several administrative managing positions at private companies. He has led the development of agricultural technologies with applications in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Central American countries, Spain, Italy, France, England and the California State at the US. Since 1999, he led Biogenetic SA, a subsidiary of Fundacion Chile focused on biotechnological applications in the forestry and agriculture fields. He currently works as Director of Strategic Studies at Fundación para la Innovación Agraria, FIA an agency of the Ministerio de Agricultura of Chile. In this position he leads programs on innovation, technology transfer, and topics on regulations and intellectual property related to biotechnology.
Dr. Grill is currently working at a plant biotechnology company that has been involved in making therapeutic drugs, pharmaceuticals and vaccines using a unique plant viral gene expression technology. The company, Large Scale Biology Corporation (LSBC), was started in 1987 and became a publicly-held company in 2000. Dr. Grill was one of the founders for the company. LSBC has garnered an international reputation as an innovator in biomanufacturing and has been able to produce multi-kilogram quantities of therapeutic proteins and vaccine candidates using outdoor field production sites. Using indoor greenhouse facilities, they have had successful clinical trials producing patient-specific vaccines as a therapeutic treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer patients. Prior to LSBC, Larry worked in other small biotechnology companies that were involved in plant improvements. He has also consulted and helped to start other companies in the plant biotechnology field. Dr. Grill received his Ph.D. from the department of plant pathology at the University of California in Riverside in 1979. He has published over 25 scientific papers and is an inventor on more than 30 issued US and world patents.
Silvia Salazar is a Costarican lawyer from the University of Costa Rica. She has a specialization on intellectual property and technology transfer from the Franklin Pierce Law Center, New Hampshire, USA. She has also attended numerous training courses. Her area of expertise is intellectual property management. She also works on agricultural biotechnology regulatory frameworks, biosafety, biodiversity protection and access to genetic resources.
She worked for ten years as Legal Adviser for the Vice-presidency for Research of the University of Costa Rica and for the Office of Technology Transfer of the same University.
She now works as a consultant, mainly for international organizations, such as the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat (SIECA), the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA), USAID, ISNAR (CGIAR), FAO, BIO-EARN, etc. She works part time as Legal Adviser at the Office of Technology Transfer of the University of Costa Rica (PROINNOVA) and practices law privately.
Ms. Salazar is also a Doctorate student of agronomy and natural sciences of the University of Costa Rica. She is a member of the Expert Advisory Committee since the creation of the Central Advisory Service on IP of the CGIAR and member of the International Advisory Committee of PIIPA.
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