Professor Andrea Pieroni is currently the Rector of the University of Gastronomic Sciences, Italy that aims at creating a constant dialogue between Traditional Knowledge holders/local communities and the “scientific” arena, and implementing food sovereignty and sustainability. He is trained in medical botany at the University of Pisa. Prof. Andrea Pieroni earned his doctorate from the University of Bonn in Germany. He has served as the Vice President and President of the International Society of Ethnobiology (2008-2010). He is the founder and Chief Editor of the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (ethnobiomed.com). He is a Honorary Member of the Academy of Science of Albania. He has conducted extensive research and published several papers on traditional foraging & folk perceptions, Food cultural heritage and its dynamics, Human ecology and biocultural diversity, cross-cultural and diachronic analyses of LEK (local environmental knowledge) systems; cultural adaptation processes.
In this talk he talks about his research on various aspects on Ethnobotany of Wild plants across Europe. The talk was attended by Hundreds of Students/Researchers across India and globally.

Dr. Maria Fadiman is a Professor of Geography at the Department of Geosciences, Florida Atlantic University, Florida, USA. She is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a writer of academic articles and adventure essays. Her work is primarily in rural areas with indigenous people and subsistence agriculturalists. The majority of her research is in the rainforests of Latin America. She has also researched with with Mayan weavers in the Yucatan and studied medicinal plants with the Lacandon people in Chiapas, Mexico, explored alternative livelihoods in Africa for those who depend on tree poaching from the national parks in the savanna; explored house construction from natural materials in the Philippines; studied the Maori utilization of the Kauri tree in New Zealand; created an ethnobotanical booklet with the Ha tribe in Tanzania Africa; and looked at globalization in reference to the Omegot (Ngasech, First Born) ceremony on Palau, Micronesia. She has also been a TEDx speaker at TEDx Berkeley and TEDx Cancun