Webinar 1: “Digitalization of agrifood supply chains, and the impact on social sustainability and fair value redistribution” with Dr. Marco Formentini, University of Trento

🗓 Friday – February 20, 2026

🕦 9am-10:30 central time 

🎥 Zoom link:  https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/aCJTT74nRGy9ZFkS8VjZZw

Abstract: Dr. Formentini investigates sustainable supply chain management with a specific focus on agri-food supply chains. He will present on incorporating the theme of sustainability, fair value redistribution and collaborative negotiation in a digital environment. Issues of food loss and waste are important aspects of his work as is the importance of information sharing. 

Bio: Prof. Formentini is the deputy director of the Executive MBA in Trento. He holds degrees in Management Engineering (University of Udine, Italy) and a Doctoral Degree (PhD) in Management Engineering (University of Padova, Italy). He has been Associate Professor at Audencia Business School, Nantes (France), Lecturer at the School of Management, University of Bath (UK) and Post-Doc Research Fellow at Cass Business School, City University London (UK) (now Bayes Business School). 

He has published in leading journals such as Journal of Product Innovation Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Transportation Research: Part E, Journal of Cleaner Production, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, SCM: an International Journal, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management and many others.

Webinar 2: “Open knowledge on the U.S. food systems to support decision-making” with Dr. Deniz Berfin Karakoc, Arizona State University 

🗓 Friday – March 20, 2026

🕦 noon – 1:30 central time 

🎥 Zoom link: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/ArXZahoCQWisUkIxE2SLTA

Abstract: Agricultural and food systems are vital for feeding humanity. Along these complex systems, flow of the perishable goods between the supply and demand locations is facilitated by multi-modal transportation infrastructure. While safeguarding the flow of agri-food commodities against a set of unforeseen threats such as pandemics, socio-political disputes, economic crises, and extreme weather events is paramount, it is also a challenging goal. In this talk, I will propose interdisciplinary approaches to generate fine resolution food flow information. I will further discuss network science and optimization techniques to assess resilience, efficiency, and sustainability characteristics of the U.S. food systems. In particular, I will present three frameworks to (i) estimate the temporal agri-food flows between the U.S counties, (ii) identify the logistics hubs within the U.S. agri-food supply chains, and (iii) assess the agri-food specific load on the U.S. highways, railways, and waterways. These efforts can guide policy- and decision-making regarding food security.

Bio: Deniz Berfin Karakoc is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University. She holds a Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a specialization area in Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems. Her research focuses on developing interdisciplinary frameworks to model agri-food systems across spatial scales and enhance their resilience, sustainability, and equity characteristics.

During her studies, she was awarded the 2019 Best Thesis Award from the University of Oklahoma and the 2023-2024 Dissertation Completion Fellowship from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was also part of the 2023 CEE Rising Stars cohort at MIT. Her recent publications have been featured in Nature Food, Environmental Research Letters, and Environmental Science & Technology.

Webinar 3: “Food flows and digital twins: making food network information actionable” with Dr. Kushank Bajaj, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

🗓 Thursday – April 23, 2026

🕦 noon-1:30 central time

🎥 Zoom link: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/PTZQvi9PRPeAG88_1uV6GQ

Abstract: Ensuring global food security is increasingly challenging as climate change, geopolitical disruptions, and resource constraints place growing stress on food systems. To respond effectively, we need a much clearer picture of where food is produced, how it moves through supply chains, and where vulnerabilities emerge along the way.

In this talk, Kushank will share two projects that aim to make food flows more visible and actionable. The first is Canada Food Flows, a data product and knowledge-mobilization tool that traces how fruits and vegetables move from domestic and international sources to Canadian provinces over time. The project highlights practical methods—and transparent sensitivity analyses—for estimating food flows even in data-poor contexts.

The second project is the Global Food Twin, a high-resolution, open-source modeling framework that simulates the movement of 82 food commodities across nearly 3,800 subnational regions worldwide. Developed by the Better Planet Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder in partnership with Earth Genome, the model combines detailed production data with fine-scale population and dietary information to estimate regional food demand. A major advance is the integration of a supply-chain module that optimizes least-cost multimodal transport—across maritime, rail, road, and inland waterways—allowing the model to simulate over 13 million distinct pathways from producers to consumers around the globe. Together, these tools offer new ways to explore exposure, resilience, and risk in an increasingly interconnected global food system.

Bio: As a Data Scientist, Kushank combines complex data with interdisciplinary methods to drive action on sustainability and systemic risk. He currently works with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and earned his PhD from the University of British Columbia.

At the heart of his work is a commitment to making research and data more accessible, actionable, and relevant to those who need it most. He’s especially drawn to projects that are people- and policy-centered and believes that meaningful solutions to complex social problems emerge through collaboration, trust, and transdisciplinary thinking. He cares deeply about bridging the gap between research and practice. That means going beyond academic papers and technical reports to find ways of communicating insights that resonate—with policymakers, communities, and anyone trying to build a more just and sustainable world.

Webinar 4: “AI tools for food networks – national, regional and local”, with Dr. Song Gao, UW-Geography and Geospatial Science Lab; Dr. Alfonso Morales, UW-Planning and Landscape Architecture, and Michelle Miller, UW-CALS Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

🗓 Thursday – May 21^st, 2026

🕦 10am – 11:30 central time

🎥 Zoom link: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/meeting/register/jeGQtkFZRke5c1mCD5zZdA

As the University of Wisconsin team at the National Science Foundation’s AI Institute based in The Ohio State University, Gao, Morales and Miller work together to explore AI tools to characterize the food environment at the national, regional and local scales. In this talk, each will give a short introduction to their work at scale and the AI tools developed and used. Gao’s lab has explored food flow modeling with public data sets to uncover patterns in food movements. Miller works on regionalizing food movements with Wisconsin cooperatives and Tribal nations. Morales is building an information environment to better support local food markets. Together, these projects start to create a picture of our food networks at multiple scales and have resulted in the development of opensource AI tools that anyone can use to manage data more effectively. 

Bios: Song Gao, Associate Professor in Geography, uses spatial statistics and machine learning to increase understanding of human mobility patterns and human-place interactions. He develops and applies geospatial data science methods for better sensing of human behavior, socioeconomic characteristics, and urban dynamics. Many domains such as business intelligence, transportation, urban planning, public health, and environmental studies rely on spatial analysis and geographic information systems (GIS). Song is passionate about solving real-world challenges by connecting theoretical data science research to advancements in the GIS industry. Song especially values his collaborations with other scientists, scholars, and students on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects, and learning from each other. 

Alfonso Morales, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture. He is interested in applying science to support society and to help produce social goods. For instance, his new software, FEAST (food equity access simulation technology), enables local government and nonprofit organizations to understand the consequences of changes in food access on populations and simulate responses.  His six books and 100+ other publications cover social science theory and methods, organizations, various aspects of food systems, public marketplaces, and street vendors. He co-created the farm2facts.org toolkit for farmers market managers, used around the U.S.

Michelle Miller, researcher at CALS Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, is a practicing economic anthropologist engaged in participatory action research on food systems. Michelle has worked for state government and several national and international environmental organizations. She has worked with fruit growers to assist them in their efforts to reduce pesticide risk, build regional markets and establish living infrastructure to reduce soil erosion. Current projects focus on agriculture of the middle and regional food economies, food distribution and supply networks, Smart Foodsheds, resiliency and climate change.