Professor Avigad Vonshak, IIMSAM's Facilitator for Spirulina Platensis is a leading authority on the scientific and practical aspects of the micro-algae who has worked for over thirty years in the very field. Prof. Vonshak is the Director the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research at the Ben Gurion University in Israel and has helped promote and establish the use of Spirulina biomass in different parts of the world.

Prof. Vonshak's inclusion to the IIMSAM would help the organization accomplish its mandate to make Spirulina a key-driver to achieve global food security and bridge the health-divide with a special focus on the Developing and the Least Developed Countries in order eradicate malnutrition and to achieve the United Nation Millennium Development Goals.

Related Links:
Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Blaustein_Institutes_for_Desert_Research

Prof. Klaus Wagener is a professor of Biophysics and Chemistry and IIMSAM's Facilitator on Spirulina. He is Professor-Emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine, Technical University of Aachen, Germany and was the visiting Professor at the Catholic University PUC in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil . Prof. Wagener was the Director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Nuclear Research Center, KFA, Juelich in Germany from 1968 to 1978. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Zürich, Switzerland; University of California , San Diego; University of Florence, Italy; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA .

Having over thirty years of research and practical experience in the field of micro-algae, Prof. Wagener was the Head of several international research programmes financed by the EEC, Brussels that were executed in southern Italy. In the capacity of a Scientific and Technical Consultant, he was instrumental to establish various Spirulina plants in Brazil, Cuba and India.

Prof. Wagener has 12 patents on the various processes of Bio-Technology to his credit and has published over 100 articles in established scientific journals and is quoted in all major biographical reference books on science and technology.

Related Links:
www.AfricanGreenFuture.com

Dr. Maria J. Barbosa,  Facilitator and Advisor of the IIMSAM on Microalgal Photo-bioreactors for Spirulina cultivation has a Ph.D. degree from the Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Her research explored the facets related to the scaled-up production and optimization of micro algae cultivation through photo bioreactors. As a Facilitator of the IIMSAM, she would bring her learning, experience, and expertise to the organization in its endeavour to secure the Right to Food for all. Non-contamination of the micro-algae and high yield of Spirulina through photo-bioreactors would explore and exploit the potential of micro-algae Spirulina to bridge the health divide and achieve food security across the globe, especially in the areas that have climatic conditions that are naturally non-conducive for the Spirulina production.

Having a keen interest in Nutrition studies, she has an MSc. degree from the Catholic University, Porto, Portugal and is currently associated with the Food and Bio-Process Engineering Group of the Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

A winner of the European Innovation Award for the year 2005 from CSK Food Enrichment, The Netherlands, she is deeply interested in Developmental issues and was associated with the United Nations as a volunteer. A polyglot, she has widely traveled across the globe regarding her work and her research works have been published internationally.

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Dr. M. Mustafa Kizililsoley, IIMSAM’s Facilitator– Operations from the Republic of Turkey was born in Istanbul. He has a MS Degree in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a MD Degree from the School of Medicine, University of Southern California (USC).

Dr. Kizililsoley is on the board of various international organisations in the field of medicine and psychology. He is also a member of many Turkish and international aid foundations.

Dr. Kizililsoley has around a dozen scientific publications in Psychiatry, Hypnosis, Learning Systems and various facets of micro-algae among others; and has addressed various international symposiums and congresses. He is also actively involved in contemporary issues that concern global sustainable development. Dr. Kizililsoley is the founder of the Soley Institute in Istanbul, Turkey that is a non-profit organization which works in the field of micro-algal biotechnology.

He would play a pivotal role to establish Spirulina infrastructures to realise a world free of hunger and malnutrition; and to realise the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Prof. Salvatore Musumeci, IIMSAM’s Facilitator from the Republic of Italy has a M.D. degree from the University of Catania, Italy. A career spanning in various disciplines such as paediatrics, haematology and nuclear medicine, Prof. Musumeci at present is a Professor at the Paediatric section of the Department of Pharmacology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Sassari.

In the past, Prof. Musumeci has been a visiting professor at the University of Vienna, University of Liverpool, and the Columbia University. Since 1994, he has been involved in various nutritional programmes for undernourished children in Burkina Faso to research on the genetic aspect of resistance to cardiovascular pathologies of the African population. Prof. Musumeci has also explored the efficacy of Spirulina in the case of children suffering from HIV/AIDS in Burkina Faso. He would be instrumental to facilitate and guide various Spirulina based nutritional prorgammes that would be initiated by the organisation across the globe.