Yüksel Tüzel is Full Professor at the Horticulture Department of the Agricultural Faculty of Ege University. She graduated from Ege University in 1981 with an MSc degree and received her PhD in Protected Cultivation in 1989. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1992 and has served as a Full Professor since 1998. Her research focuses on sustainable vegetable production technologies in greenhouses, with particular expertise in soilless culture systems, irrigation and fertilization management, and abiotic stress responses. Since 2000, she has also specialized in organic greenhouse vegetable production, conducting extensive work on organic seedling production, green manuring, cover crops, and quality management. She has taught Protected Cultivation at the undergraduate level and Organic Vegetable Production at the postgraduate level. She has supervised numerous MSc and PhD theses and led several national and international research projects. She served as President of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) from 2018 to 2022, convening six ISHS symposia and the International Horticultural Congress (IHC 2018). To date, she has authored more than 328 scientific publications, including papers in SCI-indexed journals, national refereed journals, and contributions to international and national symposia, books, and book.

Juan A. Fernández is a Horticultural Science Professor at the Technical University of Cartagena, Spain. His research focuses on the development and implementation of innovative techniques for producing new horticultural and ornamental species. He also investigates protected cultivation technologies, particularly soilless systems, the use of compost and compost-derived products for vegetable production, and the application of LED lighting for indoor cultivation, all aimed at increasing the productivity and nutritional quality of the final product. In addition, he has been involved in developing cultural techniques to improve soil quality and, consequently, enhancing vegetable yield and quality. Finally, he has also conducted numerous studies on the influence of preharvest field treatments on the postharvest shelf life of vegetables. As a result, his research career is distinguished by numerous publications, including more than 170 articles in journals indexed in the SCOPUS database (h-index: 32; over 3,400 citations). Lastly, he served as Chair of two ISHS Working Groups "Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climates " and "Nettings in Horticulture" and has edited four volumes of Acta Horticulturae for this Society.

Dr Giedrė Samuolienė ORCiD iD: 0000-0003-1085-1004 (h32, cited more than 3000 times, Scopus), defended bachelor’s degree in biology (2001), master’s degree in chemical analysis and control (2003), and PhD in agronomy (2008) in Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania).

She is the Head and Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of Plant Physiology; Science Coordinator, Institute of Horticulture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry; docent at Vytautas Magnus University, Agriculture academy; and Member of the Lithuanian Academy of Science.

Dr. G. Samuolienė is coordinating the research in the fields of plant photophysiology - metabolism, productivity, stress physiology, photosynthesis, photomorphogenesis, and novel analytical methods. Since 2003, coordinates and is the PI in the research projects supported by the Lithuanian Research Council in the field of photophysiology and participates as PI in European projects. She is a supervisor of PhD students.

She has National Science Award (2014, with co-authors), Silver Medal of Vytautas Magnus University (2015), Scholarship of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (2012-2013).

Prof. Dr. Zoran S. Ilić is a full professor at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Priština–Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia, where he teaches Vegetable Production. He earned his PhD in 1993 at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad.

To date, he has published over 200 manuscripts, including around 60 articles in SCI-listed journals, 7 books, and 10 book chapters. He spent a significant period at the Volcani Center in Israel, Department of Postharvest Science of Fresh Produce.

He has supervised three PhD dissertations and serves as an External Examiner and PhD committee member at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). He is also a reviewer for more than 80 International journals.