Veridi's Trip to the US: A Week with the Nematology Community
Vojtech Kurfürst, Solutions Architect at Veridi, at the 65th Annual SON Meeting in Baltimore, US.
Veridi spent the week engaging with the US nematology community, from the Society of Nematologists' (SON) annual meeting in Baltimore to visits at two leading research centers in Florida.
Society of Nematologists (SON) Annual Meeting, Baltimore
For the second consecutive year, Veridi joined the Society of Nematologists' annual meeting presenting both a poster and a talk on NEMASCOPE®, the company's AI-powered platform for automated nematode identification.
The conference marked the second official launch of NEMASCOPE®, this time in the US. Presenting Veridi’s work directly to practicing nematologists — and fielding their questions and pushback — remains one of the most valuable parts of engaging with the scientific community each year.
The meeting was also an opportunity to reconnect with collaborators met at last year's event in Victoria, and to meet new researchers working across the field. Veridi looks forward to continuing to build these relationships as NEMASCOPE® is validated and adopted more widely within the nematology community.
From left to right: Dr. Weimen Ye (North Carolina Department of Agriculture, Nematode Assay), Vojtech Kurfürst (Veridi), Dr. Tom Powers (University of Nebraska)
Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Tampa
From Baltimore, Vojtech traveled to Florida to meet with leading nematology researchers and visit two of the field's key facilities. The trip began with a visit to Dr. Johan Desaeger at the University of Florida's Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, whose team focuses on field trial research — running greenhouse pot trials and field trials to study how nematodes interact with different crops and rotations. It was a valuable opportunity to see how a leading research center approaches nematode identification, and to explore where NEMASCOPE could support that work.
Vojtech also met with Dr. Nathan Boyd, who is helping launch a new AI institute for agriculture at UF, aimed at bringing agricultural innovation to growers. The conversation highlighted some interesting overlap between Veridi's mission and the institute's goals.
University of Florida, Gainesville
Vojtech then traveled to the University of Florida's campus in Gainesville, where Dr. Dorota Porazinska organized two days of introductions across the department.
Dr. Billy Crow, who runs the university's nematode diagnostics lab, gave Vojtech a close look at how one of the country's leading academic institutions approaches nematode identification and testing at scale.
Vojtech also visited the Florida Department of Agriculture, which handles regulatory diagnostics for agricultural imports and exports, where he met Renato N. Inserra, a highly respected morphological nematologist known for his work on Pratylenchus and other genera.
The visit rounded out with further discussions with researchers in Dorota's group and Dr. Andrew Short, chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, on where Veridi's technology could support their work.
Building Relationships Across the Nematology Community
The trip reflects Veridi's ongoing commitment to engaging directly with the researchers and institutions shaping the field of nematology, and to learning from their expertise as NEMASCOPE® continues to be validated and adopted more broadly.
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