Victoria Jackson, MChem
Operating Officer, Globachem Discovery Ltd
Victoria Jackson is Operating Officer at Globachem Discovery Ltd, the UK research and development arm of Globachem, specialising in the discovery of novel agrochemicals.
A Chartered Chemist with a First Class MChem from the University of Bath, Victoria began her career in medicinal chemistry at UCB Pharma (formerly Celltech Chiroscience), focusing on research on kinases and protein–protein interactions in oncology and immunology. She also served as Project Manager for the global development of a Phase II clinical compound for multiple sclerosis at UCB Pharma. Since moving into crop protection in 2014, she has led R&D teams focused on agrochemical discovery.
Victoria has presented and published on novel fungicide discovery and is named as an inventor on more than 35 patents. She co-authored the 2026 Pest Management Science article “Innovations in crop protection: part deux,” serves on the organising committee for SCI’s Innovations in Crop Protection conference series, and is Treasurer of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Agrisciences Group.
Shuji Hachisu, DPhil
Chief Technology Officer, Moa Technology
Dr. Shuji Hachisu is Chief Technology Officer at Moa Technology, the Oxford-based company discovering herbicides with new modes of action to tackle resistant weeds. He joined Moa in 2018 after nearly ten years in herbicide R&D at Syngenta’s Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre. He studied chemistry at the University of Oxford (first-class MChem, Balliol College; DPhil), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at École Polytechnique in Paris. Before Syngenta, he worked as a medicinal chemist at GlaxoSmithKline and Astex Therapeutics, with earlier placements at Pfizer and P&G. He has authored patents and scientific papers, including a 2021 paper on strategies for discovering resistance-breaking, safe and sustainable herbicides, and presented Moa’s multi-country field trial results at the 2024 ACS autumn meeting.
Eric Gifford, PhD
Business Development Consultant, CDD
Dr. Eric Gifford is a scientist and business development professional with more than two decades of experience at the intersection of pharmaceutical research, scientific informatics, and data-driven drug discovery. His career spans major global pharmaceutical organizations as well as emerging technology platforms supporting modern biomedical research. Throughout his work, Dr. Gifford has focused on enabling better scientific decision-making through advanced data infrastructure, computational tools, and collaborative research environments.