Dr Nico van Belzen is Director-General of the International Dairy Federation (IDF), Belgium. He has occupied senior roles in both industry and research organisations, both as Head of the Research and Analysis department at the ingredients division of Campina and as Executive Director of the European Branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI).
Dr Bernadette O'Brien is a Senior Research Officer at Teagasc Moorepark's Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre in Ireland. Bernadette obtained a primary degree in Dairy Science, followed by a Masters in Dairy Engineering and a PhD on milking and mastitis from National University of Ireland. In her current role at Teagasc, Dr Bernadette O'Brien's projects include research into: milk quality from the perspective of achieving and maintaining minimal contaminants in milk processing; developing and progressing a sustainable system of integrating automatic milking and cow grazing; increasing efficiency of traditional technologies and exploring new technology on Irish dairy farms. Previous research by Dr. O'Brien has also included seasonal variation in milk composition and minimising chemical residues of milk; and factors that impact on the processing quality of raw milk produced in Ireland. Dr O'Brien has also been involved in coordinating successful applications for research funding to National and EU (Seventh Framework) programmes. Dr O'Brien has published extensively and has significant international collaborations with research scientists at Agroscope, Switzerland; Massey University and Dexcel in New Zealand and Wisconsin University (Madison), USA.
Dr Vaarst is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Animal Science at Aarhus University, and in the International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS), Denmark. She has published widely on organic animal farming and coordinated a number of major European research projects in this area.