Agricultural Biotechnology Seminar Series 2026 | Seminar 1: Enabling Regulatory Cohesion with Gene-Edited Crops

Barry Pogson, Ph.D.

Executive Chair of Plant SynBio Australia (PSBA) and Professor, Australian National University (ANU)

Prof. Barry Pogson is the Executive Chair of Plant SynBio Australia (PSBA) and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at the Australian National University (ANU). He leads the GPC Biofortification Initiative on improving plants for improving human health and has been involved in the GPC since its inaugural meeting. He is Senior Editor for The Plant Cell and Chair of the Golden Rice Technical Advisory Committee. He is an ISI highly cited author and American Society of Plant Biology top cited author for The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology.

Prof. Pogson has conducted pioneering work on signaling between chloroplasts and nuclei. Among his notable discoveries are a chloroplast-to-nucleus signaling pathway that underlies drought tolerance and an epigenetic regulator of carotenoid accumulation. He is at the forefront of genetic investigations into carotenoid biosynthesis and chloroplast retrograde signaling and their impacts on plant biology and human nutrition, with a particular emphasis on how the energy organelles sense the environment and initiate plant responses to coordinate growth, development, and acclimation to abiotic stress. Prof. Pogson and members of his group have received six national and international awards for research excellence, along with numerous awards for teaching and supervision excellence, including the Fenner Medal from the Australian Academy of Science and the Peter Goldacre Medal from the Australian Society of Plant Scientists.

Prof. Pogson completed his Ph.D. at Macquarie University. He moved to the USA in 1994, working as a post-doc with Dean DellaPenna before taking an Assistant Professorship at Arizona State University in 1997. He moved to ANU in 1999.

Nguyen Van Long, Ph.D.

Director General, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Vietnam

As Director General of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Dr. Long oversees advisory and regulatory functions related to emerging scientific areas, including genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and gene editing technologies. He was appointed to this position on 1 March 2025. Prior to this role, he served as Director General of the Department of Animal Health (DAH) of Vietnam, Chief Veterinary Officer, and Vietnam’s Delegate to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

Dr. Long obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Vietnam National University of Agriculture in 2000. He later completed a Master of Veterinary Sciences at James Cook University, Australia (2005–2007), followed by a Ph.D. at Massey University, New Zealand (2009–March 2013), where his doctoral thesis was recognized as exceptional. Following his graduation, he worked at the Department of Animal Health from April 2000 to February 2025, holding various positions of increasing responsibility. As Director General, he oversaw veterinary services nationwide, contributing to animal health management and disease control across Vietnam.

Osman Mewett

Senior Global Regulatory Policy Manager, Seeds & Traits, BASF and Chair, CropLife International Plant Breeding Innovation Expert Group

In November 2022, Osman joined BASF as a Global Regulatory Policy Manager, Seeds and Traits. Prior to joining BASF, Osman was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Australian Seed Federation (ASF) and was previously Director of Crop Biotechnology Policy at CropLife Australia. For over a decade, Osman has been a leader in policy, advocacy and regulatory reform activities relevant to the crop biotechnology sector in Australia. Osman has authored over a dozen industry association submissions to gene technology regulatory reviews in Australia and is now bringing those learnings to a global setting. Most recently, Osman was lead author of a Comment paper in Nature Biotechnology.

In recognition of his contribution to gene technology regulatory policy, Osman was appointed Chair of the CropLife International Plant Breeding Innovation Expert Group and was previously Acting-Chair of the International Seed Federation’s Coordination Group on Plant Breeding Innovation.

Krista Thomas

Managing Director, International Grain Trade Coalition (IGTC)

Krista Thomas is Managing Director of the International Grain Trade Coalition (IGTC), a role she assumed in June 2025. She leads the implementation of IGTC’s strategic work plan, strengthens external partnerships, and represents the voice of the global grain trade in international policy discussions.

Prior to joining IGTC, Krista served at the Canada Grains Council (CGC), where she led the Council’s work on biotechnology, gene editing, and trade policy. In that role, she played a key part in shaping industry responses to emerging regulatory issues and strengthening Canada’s engagement in international forums. She brings deep experience in international trade policy and the global grain sector, with a track record of leadership on regulatory alignment, digital trade facilitation, and science-based approaches to agricultural innovation.

Rosemary Richards

Trade & Market Access, Grain Trade Australia (GTA)

Rosemary is the principal of Bowman Richards & Associates providing strategic support to the agribusiness, food and technology sectors. She brings extensive experience in project management, trade policy, and strategic development across public and private companies, industry organisations, and government. Her work spans strategic planning, market analysis, and trade policy for the grains and food industries, including leading initiatives on non-tariff trade measures, innovation and sustainability. She supports Grain Trade Australia on trade and market access activities. In addition, she serves as Chair of Australian Oilseeds Federation and Sustainable Grain Australia.

Bhavneet Bajaj, Ph.D., PMP

Senior Manager, Agriculture & Food Systems Institute (AFSI), USA

Dr. Bhavneet Bajaj is an experienced scientist working at the intersection of science and policy at the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute (AFSI). She has led an extensive portfolio of projects on genetically modified (GM) food and feed safety assessment, environmental risk assessment, agricultural biotechnology, and is the lead for implementing technical programs for the United States government for the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology (APEC HLPDAB).

In her current position as Senior Manager, Scientific Programs, Dr. Bajaj has led international training workshops for risk assessors and regulators in South and Southeast Asia, including projects in South Asia for regulatory harmonization of safety assessment of GM foods and supporting an enabling environment for genome editing in Bangladesh and the Republic of Korea. She serves as part of AFSI’s delegation to OECD’s Working Party on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology and the Working Party on the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds. She is the curator and administrator of AFSI’s highly acclaimed Crop Composition Database (CCDB).

She has expertise working as a developer, utilizing biotechnology for the creation of improved plant varieties at (the then) DuPont Agricultural Biotechnology. Her research includes expression analysis of tomato carotenoid biosynthesis at the USDA Agricultural Research Service and metabolic profiling of secondary metabolites in medicinal plants at the Institute for Biotechnology Research, University of Maryland. Dr. Bajaj is a certified Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute.