Dr. Graeme Attwood completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in microbiology at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, before completing a Ph.D. at the University of Adelaide on genetic vectors for rumen anaerobes. After a postdoctoral position at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana working on cellulase genes he returned to New Zealand to take up a position as a Research Scientist in rumen microbiology with AgResearch in Palmerston North. He worked initially on proteolytic and hyper ammonia-producing rumen bacteria before starting up a rumen microbial genome sequencing programme.

The Butyrivibrio proteoclasticus genome sequencing project is using functional genomics techniques to define the enzyme systems used by this organism to degrade plant hemicelluloses. The rumen methanogen genome programme sequencing represents organisms from the main groups of rumen methanogens and forms part of a NZ pastoral industry-led consortium focused on developing new methane mitigation technologies for ruminant animals. The programme has completed the genome sequence of Methanobrevibacter ruminantium, and has four other rumen methanogen genome projects planned or underway. More recently he has initiated a research project investigating the fibre-degrading activities of the uncultured, plant-associated rumen microbiome using a combined metagenomics and directed cultivation approach.

Dr. Harry Clark studied agriculture at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, and graduated with a PhD in 1986.

After 5 years working for MAFF in the UK, he moved to New Zealand in 1991 to work for AgResearch studying the impacts of climate change on pastoral agriculture.

Since 2001 he has been the leader of a research team quantifying enteric methane emissions from New Zealand ruminants and researching practical methods for reducing methane emissions from grazing ruminants.

He is responsible for compiling the New Zealand agricultural methane emissions inventory and is a member of MAF's technical advisory group for the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme and a member of MAF's Research and Innovation technical working group.

He is currently working as Director, New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre and is based at AgResearch Grasslands, Palmerston North.

Paul Crosson, B. Agr. Sc., Ph.D. graduated with a first class honours degree in Agricultural Science (Engineering Technology) from University College Dublin in 2001 and later with a Ph.D. in Modelling Beef Production Systems in 2005. He was subsequently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study in the US during which time he conducted research at Pennsylvania State University and the United States Department of Agriculture. He is currently a research scientist with Teagasc (Irish agriculture and food development authority) at the Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre. He is also the current chairman of the beef committee of the Irish Grassland Association.

His research areas of interest include the economics of beef production systems, animal feed production economics, animal health economics and the development and application of new modes of technology transfer. More recently he has been involved in a Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food funded project aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cattle production systems. Part of this work has led to the recent development of a whole farm beef cattle systems Greenhouse gas Emissions Model (BEEFGEM) to determine the effect of varying management practices on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from pastorally based beef production systems. He has published over 40 communications on his work in scientific journals and conference proceedings to date.

Osamu Hamamoto has engaged in R & D of electrochemical devices and systems for environmental protection, energy storage and biochemical analyses for Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (MES) Co., Ltd. since 1973, after graduation from Tokyo Metropolitan University. He received a Doctor of Engineering in 1998 from the university and was installed in an additional post as chemical lecturer at Meiji University in 1999.

Since 2001, he has been working with Obihiro University for the development of new high-performance biogas systems in order to establish a sustainable animal agriculture based on bio-electrochemical technologies. New microbial devices for GHG emission reduction are under development in the collaboration with Obihiro University, the fuel cell group of a Japanese National Laboratory, and his group in MES.

Dr. Lowry A. Harper obtained his Ph.D. in Agricultural Physics (Major) and Agricultural Engineering (Minor) at the University of Georgia in 1971, and M.SA. in Soil Physics (Major) and Agricultural Engineering (Minor) at the University of Florida in 1966. He also obtained his BSAgE in Agricultural Engineering (Major) and Soils (Minor) at the University of Florida in 1964. Dr. Harper's current employment is Lowry A. Harper Consulting Co., Trace-Gas Consulting. From 1966 to 2006 he was employed with Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Watkinsville, GA, and from 2006 to 2009 was at the University of Georgia, Poultry Science Department, Athens.

Dr. Harper and his colleagues frequently have performed creative extension of existing micrometeorological and atmospheric transport theory and methodology in order to explain trace-gas transport in agricultural cropping and animal production systems. His work has extensively utilized systems-analysis in explaining transport mechanisms and cycling dynamics in the soil-plant-animal-atmosphere. They have developed new non-invasive techniques to obtain accurate and precise estimates of trace-gas emissions from cropping systems, from animals under natural conditions, from confined animal feeding operations, and from energy production.

Dr. Harper's work has attracted international interest and has provided input for the USDA, United States Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, North American Carbon Program, United States Swine Monitoring Consensus Plan, State Environmental Protection Divisions, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Australian Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Agricultural Air Research Council, and other national and international trace-gas programs. He has authored over 170 articles in scientific publications and has made more than 160 invitational presentations worldwide.

Dr. Roger Hegarty is a livestock nutritionist and Principal Research Scientist based at New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Beef Industry Centre in Armidale. He works closely with the University of New England in areas of methane measurement and methane mitigation, with particular emphasis on rumen manipulation and animal breeding to reduce enteric methane emissions. Current project areas include management of rumen protozoa and dietary nitrate to reduce emissions as well as genetic improvement for net feed efficiency and methane per unit intake. For many years he has worked with the Australian and New Zealand governments to get enteric methane onto the radar to enable mitigation strategies to be developed.

Dr. Torsten Hemme received a M.Sc. in agricultural economics in 1993, and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics in 1999, both at the University of Göttingen, Germany. The Ph.D. thesis was "A concept for international analysis of the policy and technology impacts in agriculture". He is Chair of the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) Dairy Research Centre since 1999. Some research projects that he has been involved with include finalizing the IFCN methods, development of the IFCN network concept, founding of the IFCN Dairy Research Centre and the IFCN Dairy Network, in which 80 countries/research institutions and 64 agribusiness companies are participants.

Dr. Hemme has published over 200 papers and provided guidance to more than 30 Ph.D. and Masters students from Germany, The Netherlands, France, Poland, Hungary, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Bulgaria, and China.

Ermias Kebreab, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D., Professor and Sesnon Endowed Chair, Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis.

Dr. Kebreab obtained his B.Sc. in Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Asmara, Eritrea; M.Sc .and Ph.D.from the University of Reading, United Kingdom. He joined the University of Guelph as an Adjunct Professor in 2003. In 2007, he was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Modelling Sustainable Agricultural Systems and joined the Department of Animal Science, University of Manitoba as an Associate Professor.

In 2009, he was appointed as Professor of Animal Science and Sesnon Endowed Chair at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Kebreab received the 'Young Scientist Award' from the Canadian Society of Animal Science in 2006, and the 'Early Career Achievement Award' from the American Society of Animal Science in 2008. He is an author of more than 90 peer-reviewed journal articles, 21 book chapters, and has edited 4 books.

Dr. Athol Klieve is an Associate Professor in Animal Nutrition at the University of Queensland and a Senior Principal Research Scientist with Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries, Australia.

His current research portfolio includes a number of projects investigating the reduction of emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from rumen fermentation through viral therapy, bioactive materials, methanotrophs and lipid-containing feed additives. Over the past 25 years Dr. Klieve has prepared, published and/or presented 232 communications (including 60 invited) on the outcomes of his research.

Dr. Daniel Massé obtained his Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Engineering from Laval University in 1980. He then obtained a Master's degree in Civil Engineering from Carleton University and a Doctorate in Environmental Engineering from the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Massé has been employed with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada since 1980. His current research deals with the development of environmental biotechnologies that reduce the impact of animal productions on the environment and result in more economically efficient animal production systems.

Dr. Massé has initiated several research studies, supported by the industry, to transform animal manures in value-added by products, to quantify and attenuate gaseous and odour emissions from livestock operations and to remove biological contaminants from farm water supplies.

Dr. Massé is an Associate Professor at several universities. He has supervised more than 30 Post Doctorate Fellows, M.Sc. and Ph.D. students.

Dr. Mark Morrison leads a research team based at CSIRO Livestock Industries in Australia. His research focuses on microbial genomics and metagenomics and how they relate to improving our understanding of gut function and health. His research has a direct impact on developing strategies for reducing enteric methane emissions. Dr. Morrison completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of New South Wales and a Masters in Tropical Veterinary Science at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. In 1991 he completed his Doctorate in Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois. Following a postdoctoral appointment with the University of Michigan and research/teaching at the Ohio State University he returned to Australia in 2006, joining CSIRO as Science Leader in Metagenomics. Dr. Morrison retains his position as Professor of Microbiology in the Department of Animal Sciences at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Frank O'Mara has been Assistant Director of Agriculture Research in Teagasc (the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority) since November 2006. Before that, he lectured at the University College Dublin for 13 years, where he was Associate Professor of Animal Nutrition.

His research covered many aspects of ruminant nutrition and production systems, and in recent years it had involved a programme on nutritional influences on methane production in ruminants. He was Secretary to the XX International Grassland Congress in 2005, and was one of the Lead Authors of the Agriculture Chapter of the IPCC 4th Assessment Report - Working Group 3: Mitigation.

Søren O. Petersen has a M.Sc. degree in biology from Aarhus University (1988), and a Ph.D. degree in microbial ecology from Aalborg University (1991). He is presently employed as senior scientist at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University, and PI of several projects addressing gaseous emissions associated with manure management, cultivation practices and cropping systems.

Dr. Petersen has published more than 50 papers on fundamental and applied aspects of C/N turnover in organic wastes and soil and the associated microbial dynamics. For additional details, please visit http://www.agrsci.org/content/view/full/2087.

Dr. Philippe Rochette's research focuses on the quantification of gaseous exchange on farms. More specifically, he works on nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia and methane emissions from agricultural soils in response to farming practices. He also contributed to methodologies for conducting national inventories of greenhouse gases from the agricultural sector.

Garry Waghorn is a Senior Research Scientist working at DairyNZ in Hamilton, New Zealand. His interests centre around nutrition and digestive physiology in sheep and cattle at both the basic and applied level but with a strong focus on environmental sustainability. Current research includes factors affecting feed quality, feed conversion efficiency in dairy cows (residual feed intake) and measurement of methane emissions for inventory and mitigation. Any type of mitigation must be profitable if it is to be adopted by farmers; this may be out greatest challenge.

Claudia Wagner-Riddle is a Professor in Agricultural Meteorology at the School of Environmental Science, University of Guelph. She obtained her B.Sc. (Agr.) and M.Sc. in Agrometeorology from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and her Ph.D. in Agrometeorology from the University of Guelph in 1992.

Her research is in the area of quantification of trace gases (mostly greenhouse gases, GHG) from agricultural soils and animal manure, with emphasis on identification of management practices that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore decrease the environmental impact of agricultural activities. Her research group has investigated long-term soil nitrous oxide emissions as affected by soil freeze/thaw, GHG emissions from manure storage and composting processes including in-vessel and curing phases, and nitrous oxide emissions following land application of animal manure.

Dr. Wagner-Riddle has extensive experience in the derivation of GHG emission factors and application of these in GHG inventories. She has contributed to the methodology used by Environment Canada and IPCC for greenhouse gas emissions from animal manure. She is a member of Environment Canada's 'Technical Committee GHG Inventory: Agriculture - Livestock' that has been formed to address methodology issues in the calculation of GHG emissions factors from the Livestock sector.

Dr. André-Denis Wright is currently Chair of the Department of Animal Science at the University of Vermont after working at CSIRO in Australia between 1998 and 2009. He has been working in the area of Gut Microbiology of both human and ruminants since graduating from the University of Guelph in 1998. Dr. Wright maintains affiliations with the University of Guelph, University of Queensland and Murdoch University. He continues to be a member of several editorial journal boards.