Rick van de Zedde is project manager Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (www.NPEC.nl). Next to that he is senior scients/ business developer for Phenomics & Automation at Wageningen University & Research, where he has worked since 2004. His background is in Artificial Intelligence with a focus on imaging and robotics. In 2002, he graduated with a MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Groningen. Since March 2020 he has join the board of the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN).

He also takes an active role in research. In 2011, he was head of the MARVIN-project in which he and his team developed a tomato seedling inspection approach based on 3D reconstruction. In the current EU project EPPN, he is the leader of the “Novel Instrumentation for Plant Phenotyping” work package.

In the EU-COST action FA1306, http://costfa1306.eu/ “The quest for tolerant varieties - Phenotyping at plant and cellular level”, he is WG3 leader taking care of the integration of phenotyping at plant and cell level and translation into good practices for applied end use.

NPEC is exploring the potential of high-throughput phenotyping robotics, areas in which WUR has recently made significant breakthroughs.