XXXVII Asepelt International conference Asepelt

Alcalá, june 25th to 28st, 2025

Zero Hunger: Health, Production, Economics and Sustainability

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME (Provisional)

Note: Except for some activities, all the events will be held at Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Empresariales y Turismo de la Universidad de Alcalá.

    Wednesday, June 25th 2025    

• 16.00-20.00   SEMINAR ASEPELT 

José Manuel Santos Jaén. University of Murcia

Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Research Activity

Jose Manuel Santos Jaén is Professor of the Department of Financial Economics and Accounting at the University of Murcia, with a solid academic background: Graduate in Business Administration and Management, Graduate in Law, Diploma in Business Studies (First National Award), Master in Auditing, Master in Financial Management and Master in Business Administration, among others. He also holds a PhD in Social, Legal and Business Sciences.

He is a member of the chairs of Social Economy and Corporate Social Responsibility of the University of Murcia, as well as of the Chair of Scientific and/or Technical Publications of the General Council of Economists.

Professor Santos Jaén has a professional career of more than 18 years, playing leadership roles in economic-financial departments and as General Director of a non-profit organization. He has been in charge of the economic aspects of entities in the construction sector and has experience as an economic expert witness in courts of law.

Always at the forefront of research and teaching innovation, his extensive research work has been recently expanded with his contributions in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which have been reflected in books, scientific articles, communications in international conferences, and even in research projects of teaching innovation linked to Artificial Intelligence. A great disseminator, Professor Santos Jaén is one of the most requested keynote speakers by Spanish universities and business schools on Artificial Intelligence issues aimed at researchers and business managers.

• 18.00-19.30 MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF ASEPELT

    Thursday, June 20th 2024    

• 9.00-18.00 Registration

• 10.30-10.30 INAUGURATION

• 10.30-12:00 PARALELL SESSIONS (I)

• 12.00-12.30

• 12.30-14:00      LAWRENCE KLEIN SESSION

• 14.00-16.00 

• 16.00-17.30 PARALELL SESSIONS (II)

• 17.30-18.00 

• 18.30-20.00  WASSILY LEONTIEF SESSION (Capilla de San Ildefonso – Rectorado UAH)

Prof. Ademola Adenle. Senior Special Adviser on Agricultural Innovation

to Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Food Security

"Navigating the controversial GMO Debate in Africa: Balancing Risks and Opportunities

for Agricultural Development, Food Security, and Poverty Reduction"

Prof. Ademola Adenle currently serves as the Senior Special Adviser on Agricultural Innovation to Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Food Security. Before this role, he was a Guest Professor of Sustainability Science and Innovation Policy at the Department of Technology Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark. With over 25 years of combined experience in teaching, stakeholder engagement, and international research, Prof. Adenle works at the intersection of natural and social sciences, focusing on sustainable agriculture, food security, renewable energy, technological innovation, and entrepreneurship. His interdisciplinary work on sustainable development has featured in a number of media outlets both at the local and international level.

Prof. Adenle has served as a faculty member in Nigeria and has conducted research and taught in the UK, USA, Japan, Denmark and Germany. He has led numerous national and international projects on food systems and regenerative agriculture. Notably, he spearheaded the largest study on the controversial topic of Genetic Modification (GM) agriculture in Africa, as well as one of the most extensive studies on climate change adaptation across the continent. Recently, in Nigeria, he led the development of the first National Agricultural Soil Management Policy (NASMP), funded by USAID's Feed the Future initiative. Prof. Adenle has had the honor of meeting and engaging with six African presidents to discuss innovative solutions to critical challenges facing the continent, including food insecurity, energy poverty, and infectious diseases.

His publications straddle scientific assessment and stakeholder engagement for overcoming sustainable development challenges and achieving global agenda in developing countries including countries in Africa. He has produced more than 70 publications in top international journals including Nature Biotechnology, Food Policy, Agriculture and Food Security and Ecological Economics, in addition to book chapters and books. He led a team of international experts to publish a book project (with Cambridge University Press, 2017) on risk analysis and governance of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in developing world. He also successfully led over 70 experts around the world to complete a new book: “Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Insights from Agriculture, Health, Environment and Energy” (Oxford University Press, 2020), with forewords written by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Prof. Mohmoud Mohieldin (Senior Vice President of World Bank). The book is considered one of the first interdisciplinary works on STI within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda.

Prof. Adenle has won several awards. In 2020, he was selected as the Next Einstein Fellow (NEF) Laureate which was presented in his absentia by the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta. In early 2023, he was selected as Rockefeller Food System finalist in recognition of his leadership in global food system. Also, in 2023, he was the only African scholar that won the Sustainability 2022 Carbon Neutrality Award.

• 20.00  RECEPTION BY THE ACADEMIC AUTHORITIES OF THE UAH. UNIVERSITY VISIT AND COCKTAIL (Rectorado UAH)

    Friday, June 27st 2025    

• 9.00-18.00 Registration

• 10.00-11.00  PLENARY CONFERENCE 

Fact and Fiction about GMOs and the Future of Biotechnology

When Monsanto first tried to introduce GMO seeds into Europe there was a backlash by the Green parties and their political allies, who feared that American agro-business was poised to take over their food supply. Thus began a massive campaign to discredit GMOs and scare people away from them. This has had disastrous consequences for one of the most promising technologies ever developed for improving food supplies. The success of the campaign has been particularly harmful in the developing world where GMO solutions for crop improvement are either being stymied or overly-regulated if not totally prevented. I will briefly describe the history of agriculture and plant breeding to show that the methods of GMO technology are safer, if anything, than traditional breeding approaches, which the Green parties would have us believe are perfectly safe. I will describe some of the GMO crops that can be beneficial to poor people in developing countries including the development of Golden Rice, which can help combat Vitamin A deficiency a nutrient problem that currently kills or physically impairs one to two million children every year. Finally, I will give some examples of how GMOs can solve a variety of problems facing humanity.

Sir Richard J. Roberts Ph.D. F.R.S. 1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine.

Chief Scientific Officer New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA USA

Dr. Richard J. Roberts is the Chief Scientific Officer at New England Biolabs, Beverly, Massachusetts. He was educated in England, attending St. Stephen's School and the City of Bath Boys' School in Bath before moving to the University of Sheffield where he obtained a B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1965 and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1968. His postdoctoral research was carried out in Professor J.L. Strominger's laboratory at Harvard, where he studied the tRNAs that are involved in the biosynthesis of bacterial cell walls. From 1972 to 1992, he worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, reaching the position of Assistant Director for Research under Dr. J.D. Watson. He began work on the newly discovered Type II restriction enzymes in 1972 and in the next few years more than 100 such enzymes were discovered and characterized in Dr. Roberts' laboratory. His laboratory has cloned the genes for several restriction enzymes and their cognate methylases and studies of these enzymes has been a major research theme. Dr. Roberts has also been involved in studies of Adenovirus-2 beginning with studies of transcription that led to the discovery of split genes and mRNA splicing in 1977. This was followed by efforts to deduce the DNA sequence of the Adenovirus-2 genome and a complete sequence of 35,937 nucleotides was obtained. This latter project required the extensive use of computer methods, both for the assembly of the sequence and its subsequent analysis. His laboratory pioneered the application of computers in this area and the further development of computer methods of protein and nucleic acid sequence analysis continues to be a major research focus. The field of DNA methyltransferases is also an area of active research interest and crystal structures for the HhaI methyltransferase both alone and in complex with DNA have been obtained in collaboration with Dr. X. Cheng. The latter complex is quite remarkable as the protein causes the target cytosine base to flip completely out of the helix so that it is accessible for chemical reaction. This extreme, but elegant, distortion of the double helix had not been seen previously.

He runs the REBASE database that contains information about all known bacterial and archaeal restriction enzymes and DNA methylases. A major interest at present is the semi-automatic identification of restriction enzyme and methylase genes within the GenBank database and the development of rapid methods to assay function. Already several new specificities have been found and it is clear that there are many more restriction enzyme genes in Nature than had been previously suspected. Using PacBio sequencing it is now possible to determine complete methylomes for bacteria and this is leading to the discovery of many novel enzymes.

• 11.00-12.00 ROUND TABLE

Discusants:

Viviane Naimy. Notre Dame University at Louaize (Beirut, Lebanon)

Viviane Naimy is a Professor of Finance and Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics at Notre Dame University, Lebanon. An expert in financial econometrics and risk management, she has an extensive publication record in these fields. As Dean, she successfully led the AACSB and other programmatic accreditation processes. Passionate about poverty reduction, Naimy co-founded and presides over the Sustainable Farming Technology Association (SFT) with Nobel laureate Sir Richard Roberts, focusing on sustainable agriculture and actively working on poverty reduction through the SFT initiative in Lebanon. She also initiated the establishment of the Journal of Sustainable Economies in collaboration with Northeastern University, dedicated to addressing poverty and hunger. Additionally, Naimy leads the Beta Gamma Sigma chapter at Notre Dame University, Lebanon, and is a piano composer. 

Aldo Olcese

Aldo Olcese (1957) has a doctorate in financial economics and is a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences and Vice-President of the Royal European Academy of Doctors, which includes 20 Nobel Prices members chairman. He chaired the Spanish Institute of Financial Analysts and the Foundation for Financial Studies between 2000 and 2006. At present he is chairman of the Spanish National Association of the Civil Society and chairman of the Spanish Independent Foundation, the leading and oldest Spanish think thank. He is also vice-chairman of the Word Public Diplomacy Organitation the leading international Chinese think thank based in Geneva.

He also chaired the advisory board of Société Générale in Spain between 2003 and 2011 and of the US strategy consulting firm and world leader Bain & Co (between 1996 and 2006), as well as the TSystems board of the Deutsche Telekom group (between 2002 and 2012). Mr. Olcese served as a Director of Ericsson (between 1996 and 2011), Senior Advisor to KPMG (between 2011 and 2012), and Senior Advisor of the world leading financial restructuring house Álvarez&Marsal of the EE.UU., during five years. He was Managing Director of Iberagentes, a stock exchange and securities company, and Chairman of Iberbolsa, a securities investment fund, between 1985 and 1990, and managed investments at the Hispano Industrial bank between 1983 and 1985.

He was commissioner for the I and II Digital Coins&European Financial System Summit 2021 and 2022. And since 2020 Chairman of the Scientific and Academic Committee of the Top Boards Programme for the training of directors of large listed companies created by the Financial Times and Instituto de Empresa.

Senior Advisor to the investment banking and wealth management firm Alantra Wealth Management (leader in the Spanish market), and Chairman (sole director and owner) of Fincorp Mediación, a leader in corporate governance and corporate social responsibility consultancy. He is also an independent advisor to the National Council for Corporate Social Responsibility and Chairman of the Southern Europe Advisory Board of McGraw Hill, the world's number 1 publishing house. In July of 2023 appointed Senior Advisor of ERG, a leading European renewable energy company of Italian origin, and non-executive vicepresident of COX GROUP for North Africa, a company specialized in desalination, renewable energy and electricity transmission networks. He is also independent director of the African leading bank Attijari Wafa Bank. Mr. Olcese has been twice Commissioner for the corporate governance reform in Spain and for the corporate social responsability in Europe, appointed by the European Commission.

Author of several books on economics, including ‘El Capitalismo Humanista’, published by Marcial Pons, and ‘Manual de la Empresa Responsable y Sostenible’, published by Mcgraw Hill. He was awarded the Grand Cross of Civil Merit by His Majesty the King of Spain in 2007, Hight Commander of the Italian Republic civil merit order in 2003, and was appointed Commander of the Wissan Al Aloui in 2008 by His Majesty Mohammed VI, after being made an Officer in 2004, and named Commander of the Civil Merit Great Cross of Luxembourg in 2002, for his strong contribution of the development of the financial market in that country.

Ademola Adenle. Senior Special Adviser on Agricultural Innovation to Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Food Security

Prof. Ademola Adenle currently serves as the Senior Special Adviser on Agricultural Innovation to Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture and Food Security. Before this role, he was a Guest Professor of Sustainability Science and Innovation Policy at the Department of Technology Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark. With over 25 years of combined experience in teaching, stakeholder engagement, and international research, Prof. Adenle works at the intersection of natural and social sciences, focusing on sustainable agriculture, food security, renewable energy, technological innovation, and entrepreneurship. His interdisciplinary work on sustainable development has featured in a number of media outlets both at the local and international level.

Prof. Adenle has served as a faculty member in Nigeria and has conducted research and taught in the UK, USA, Japan, Denmark and Germany. He has led numerous national and international projects on food systems and regenerative agriculture. Notably, he spearheaded the largest study on the controversial topic of Genetic Modification (GM) agriculture in Africa, as well as one of the most extensive studies on climate change adaptation across the continent. Recently, in Nigeria, he led the development of the first National Agricultural Soil Management Policy (NASMP), funded by USAID's Feed the Future initiative. Prof. Adenle has had the honor of meeting and engaging with six African presidents to discuss innovative solutions to critical challenges facing the continent, including food insecurity, energy poverty, and infectious diseases.

His publications straddle scientific assessment and stakeholder engagement for overcoming sustainable development challenges and achieving global agenda in developing countries including countries in Africa. He has produced more than 70 publications in top international journals including Nature Biotechnology, Food Policy, Agriculture and Food Security and Ecological Economics, in addition to book chapters and books. He led a team of international experts to publish a book project (with Cambridge University Press, 2017) on risk analysis and governance of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in developing world. He also successfully led over 70 experts around the world to complete a new book: “Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Insights from Agriculture, Health, Environment and Energy” (Oxford University Press, 2020), with forewords written by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Prof. Mohmoud Mohieldin (Senior Vice President of World Bank). The book is considered one of the first interdisciplinary works on STI within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda.

Prof. Adenle has won several awards. In 2020, he was selected as the Next Einstein Fellow (NEF) Laureate which was presented in his absentia by the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta. In early 2023, he was selected as Rockefeller Food System finalist in recognition of his leadership in global food system. Also, in 2023, he was the only African scholar that won the Sustainability 2022 Carbon Neutrality Award.

Padre Ángel. Fundador y presidente de la ONG Mensajeros de la Paz

Ángel García Rodríguez, better known as Father Ángel, is a Spanish Catholic priest and philanthropist. He is the founder and president of the NGO Mensajeros de la Paz, which was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 1994. His philanthropic work began in 1962, after a visit to the Oviedo Orphanage, after having just been ordained a priest. He was assigned there to take care of the chaplaincy. That year he founded his NGO together with Ángel Silva Sánchez. Based in Madrid, from his parish, San Antón, he has undertaken various solidarity initiatives. The church remains open 24 hours a day, to house homeless people and offer them breakfast. In 2016 he opened the Robin Hood restaurant, which has the peculiarity of being a normal establishment during the day but which, from 7 pm, offers free dinner to disadvantaged people.

He has been awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in Labor in 2014, named Honorary Member of KM Solidarity in 2018 and awarded the Beato de Liébana Prize for International Cohesion in 2019 and the Fernando de los Ríos Prize in 2024. For more detailed info in Spanish click here

Moderator:

José Ramón Calvo Fernández. Presidente del Instituto de Cooperación Internacional de la Real Academia de Doctores

• 12.00-12.30 

• 12.30-14.00 PARALELL SESSIONS (III)

• 14.00-16.00 

• 16.00-17.30 PARALELL SESSIONS (IV)

• 17.30-18.00

• 18.00-19.30 PARALELL SESSIONS (V)

• 19:30 ASEPELT GENERAL ASSEMBLY

• 21.30 GALA DINNER, TRIBUTES AND AWARDS CEREMONY