Dr. Milan Oldřich Urban

Dr. Milan Oldřich Urban joined ICBA as Horticulture Specialist in 2024. He started his scientific career in 2006 as a master’s student at the Crop Research Institute in Prague, the Czech Republic, becoming a research assistant in 2009 and a researcher in 2012.

In 2016-2017 Dr. Milan Oldřich Urban worked at ICRISAT under the supervision of Dr. Vincent Vadez and Dr. Jana Kholova (sorghum, chickpea, drought phenotyping). In 2018 he joined the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia. At CIAT, he led the Common Bean Physiology team under the Common Bean program (led by Dr. Steven Beebe). His responsibilities included supporting the breeding program at CIAT through the identification of traits and mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance in Phaseolus and defining selection criteria for application in breeding. He implemented extensive field trials as well as studies in growth chambers and controlled temperature greenhouses at CIAT’s research station. Among other activities, his work entailed the use of the MultiSpeQ (PhotosynQ) and he invented with his assistants a low-cost, near real-time high-frequency gravimetric phenotyping tool to measure crop transpiration with automatic irrigation (LysipheN) and implemented the use of climatic wireless LoRaWAN sensors to normal agronomic practice.

His interests lie in horticulture, stress physiology and eco-physiology, phenotyping, good cultivation practices, the internet of things and barriers to varietal adoption.

He published around 60 peer-reviewed papers in English and other languages and six book chapters.

He holds a PhD (2017) from Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague.