Francesco Orsini is full professor at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), University of Bologna, Italy. Prof. Orsini is a FAO-UN consultant in urban agriculture projects in Asia, Latin America and Africa. He coordinates the European Project FoodE (Food systems in European Cities, funded by H2020) and the Research Project of National Interest V-Farm (Sustainable Vertical Farming) funded by the Italian Ministry for Research and Education. From 2018, Prof. Orsini launched the International Student Challenge UrbanFarm. From 2018, Prof. Orsini is the Chair of the Landscape and Urban Horticulture Division of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS).
Giuseppina Pennisi is assistant professor (RTDA) at the Department of Food Science and Technology. She holds a PhD in December 2019 at the University of Turin, in cotutelle with the Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena (Spain), with a thesis entitled LED lighting for indoor cultivation of leafy vegetables and herbs. Dr. Pennisi is a council member of the National PhD school on Artificial Intelligence. She coordinates the research unit of UNIBO in the Erasmus project LOFT and contributes to the activities of European projects: "FoodE - Food systems for European cities", "BUGI - Western Balkans urban agriculture Initiatives", "GardensToGrow", "Innofarming", "Urban Green Train". From 2018, Dr. Pennisi is the tutor for the international students challenge UrbanFarm.