Guglielmo Costa

Guglielmo Costa served in the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bologna from 1969 to 1985 as Assistant and Associate Professor in Fruit Science. In 1986, he became Full Professor of Fruit Science, and moved to the University of Udine, where he served as Head of Produzioni vegetali Dept and Director of Experimental Agricultural Farm until 1997. He transferred back to the University of Bologna and served in the Fruit Trees and Woody Plant Science Dept for two terms until 2015. Professor Costa began his career with investigations on agronomic, genetic, and chemical methods to control vegetative growth in the main temperate fruit species. He was particularly interested in the use of plant growth regulators (growth retardants, thinning agents, fruit set promoters, ethylene inhibitors affecting maturation and ripening of fruit). It is this use of plant growth regulators in fruit crop management that is probably the area of research for which he is best known in Italy as well as overseas. His other two major interests are i) the kiwifruit research carried out since the introduction of the species in Italy and ii) the non-destructive assessment and prediction of fruit quality, particularly by use of near infrared spectroscopy and E-nose. The result of the research in this field was the development of devices, such as the DA-meter, patented by the University of Bologna and now widely used in the industry. Professor Costa has more than 90 scientific papers in peer-reviewed international journals, several hundred technical publications, and a large number of conference presentations and related proceedings including about 90 papers in at least 40 different volumes of Acta Horticulturae. He actively promotes international cooperation in education; the most outstanding example of this is the International Master Course in Horticultural Science (IMaHS), an Erasmus Mundus project funded by the European Union. Professor Costa is a member of several national and international societies. As for ISHS, Professor Costa is affiliate since 1973, served as Chair of the Plant Bioregulators and of "Kiwifruit and its culture" (attended all the ISHS Symposia on Kiwifruit) and as a Chair of the Pome and Stone Fruit Section." He is the vice-chair of Division Vine and Berry Fruit (DVIN). He was the Convener of the XI Plant Bioregulators Symposium (2009, Bologna), of the VII Kiwifruit Symposium (2010, Faenza), and the ISHS Non-destructive Assessment of Fruit Attributes Symposium at the 29th IHC in Brisbane. He has long been involved with the EUFRIN (European Fruit Research Institutes Network) Working Group on Fruit Thinning and has led the group since 1994. He has been the Chair of the ISHS WG twice. Professor Costa has received i) Hort+Research, New Zealand Honorary Fellowship, ii) Dedication of a volume of Horticultural Reviews in recognition of his contributions to horticulture and horticultural research both in Italy and throughout the world, and iii) the ISHS Fellow Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to horticultural science worldwide at the IHC, Istanbul, 2018.