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Two afternoons with the people who work with pollen every day — breeders, seed producers and researchers, sharing in plain terms how pollen quality data shapes the calls they make in the field.

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16–17 September 2026 Online · two afternoon sessions (CET) Free to attend
Dates
16–17 Sept 2026
Format
Online · afternoons (CET)
Sessions
~45 min case studies, incl. Q&A
Audience
100–200 professionals
This year's focus

From pollen data to production decisions

Amphacademy is Amphasys’ annual get-together for the pollen community. Every session is a real, working case study — how a team used pollen quality analysis to answer a genuine question in breeding or seed production, and what they decided as a result. Applied, specific, and grounded in impedance flow cytometry (IFC).

Grounded in practice

Real trials, real fields, real production lines — presented by the people who ran them, from leading seed companies and universities.

Decision-relevant

Not method for its own sake. Each talk closes on what the data changed: a protocol, a selection, a go/no-go.

Peer-to-peer

A curated international audience and generous Q&A. Free to attend, built for exchange rather than sales.

The sessions

An opening keynote, then six case studies

Amphasys opens with the big picture, then six teams take the floor — five countries, three continents, crops from bell pepper and sugar beet to faba bean, sunflower, watermelon and large-scale mechanical pollination. Real questions, honest answers, and time to ask your own. More to be announced.

Opening keynoteSwitzerland

Pollen management: data-driven approaches to crop reproduction

An overview of how impedance flow cytometry turns pollen quality into decision-ready data — across vegetables, field crops, fruit trees and ornamentals. Marta shows how routine pollen viability and concentration screening supports real breeding and production choices, setting the scene for the case studies that follow.

Marta Pesquera
Marta Pesquera
Regional Sales Manager, Amphasys AG
Corn & SunflowerGermany

Assessment of pollen viability: approaches for production research in corn & sunflower

KWS built flow-cytometry pollen viability testing into its corn and sunflower production research: to investigate reduced fertilisation, to check whether pollen from partially sterile inbred lines is truly viable, and to study environmental and diurnal effects. The result is a robust, standardised way to screen pollen quality across breeding material.

Kristina WunderleMatthias Sättele
Kristina Wunderle & Matthias Sättele
Production Research, KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA
Bell pepperSouth Africa

Bell pepper pollen viability: flower stage, handling, drying, storage temperature and duration

During routine harvesting in Starke Ayres’ pepper tunnels, one breeding line kept losing viability after drying and storage. This study traced exactly where the loss occurs — flower stage, handling, drying protocol, storage duration and temperature — and pinpointed drying as the main culprit, with sampling reliable and fridge and freezer performing equally up to 28 days.

Glendon Ascough
Glendon Ascough
Research Director, Starke Ayres
Faba beanGermany

Effects of drought and heat stress on pollen development in faba bean (Vicia faba L.)

Faba bean yield is increasingly threatened by heat and drought during flowering. Using impedance flow cytometry across greenhouse, rain-out-shelter and open-field trials, Lisa shows how heat in particular cuts pollen production and viability — and how IFC revealed three distinct pollen groups: viable, non-viable and aberrant.

Lisa Brünjes
Dr. Lisa Brünjes
Plant Breeding Methodology, University of Göttingen
Sugar beetItaly

Pollen viability and the effect of storage treatments on sugar beet pollen

United Beet Seeds is mapping how sugar beet pollen changes through the blooming season, and how weather shapes its quantity and quality. The aim: reproducible protocols to collect, store and transport good pollen — right up to drone spraying. Alessia and Marino share their work on sampling, dehydration and storage.

Alessia GardiniMarino Magnani
Alessia Gardini & Marino Magnani
United Beet Seeds
Forestry → fruitBrazil

Expanding the frontiers of pollen technology: large-scale supplementary mechanical pollination, from pine to fruit crops

Kolecti runs supplementary mechanical pollination at scale across forestry, field crops and fruit in Brazil. This talk shows how pollen quality assessment supports every step — from collection and storage to field application and process optimisation — and how it takes pollen technology beyond breeding into commercial agriculture.

Andreza Cerioni Belniaki
Andreza Cerioni Belniaki
Operations & R&D Manager, Kolecti
Watermelon · ploidySwitzerland

Determining watermelon ploidy in the seed industry — one measurement, ploidy and viability together

In seedless watermelon production, triploid fruit comes from crossing tetraploid (4n) and diploid (2n) parents — so ploidy determination in that fertile parent material is a decisive step. Alexandra shows how impedance flow cytometry reads ploidy, pollen viability and aberrant cells from a single sample, and why that matters for breeding decisions and quality control.

Alexandra Abanto
Alexandra Abanto
Application Scientist, Amphasys
More to come

Further sessions to be announced

Program still growing — check back soon
Programme

Two afternoons, hour by hour

All times CET; each session runs about 45 minutes including Q&A. Join both days, or drop into the sessions that matter most to you.

Day 1 — Wednesday 16 September
14:00
Welcome & introduction
14:10
Pollen management: data-driven approaches to crop reproduction Keynote
Marta Pesquera — Amphasys
14:55
To be announced
Additional session
15:40
Break
15:55
Bell pepper pollen viability: drying & storage
Glendon Ascough — Starke Ayres (South Africa)
16:40
Pollen viability & storage treatments in sugar beet
Alessia Gardini & Marino Magnani — United Beet Seeds (Italy)
17:25
Day 1 close
Day 2 — Thursday 17 September
14:00
Welcome back
14:05
Effects of drought & heat stress on faba bean pollen
Dr. Lisa Brünjes — University of Göttingen (Germany)
14:50
Determining watermelon ploidy — ploidy & viability in one measurement
Alexandra Abanto — Amphasys
15:35
Break
15:50
Assessment of pollen viability in corn & sunflower
Kristina Wunderle & Matthias Sättele — KWS (Germany)
16:35
Large-scale supplementary mechanical pollination, from pine to fruit
Andreza Cerioni Belniaki — Kolecti (Brazil)
17:20
Closing & thanks

Times shown in Central European Time (CET).

How it works

Two focused afternoons, online

Timed for EMEA and designed to fit a working week — join the sessions that matter to you.

Format

Case-study talks

Each speaker takes ~30 minutes, followed by ~15 minutes of live Q&A. Come with questions.

Schedule

16–17 September

Two afternoon sessions in Central European Time, streamed online. Attend one day or both.

Access

Free, by registration

A curated international audience of 100–200 peers. Registration opens soon — register your interest to be first in line.

Who it's for

If pollen touches your work, you’ll feel at home here

  • Plant breeders selecting for fertility, stress tolerance and hybrid performance
  • Seed production teams managing pollination, timing and storage
  • Applied researchers working on pollen viability and reproductive biology
  • Lab and quality managers standardizing pollen analysis across sites
Registration open

We’d love to have you there

Registration is open — and it's free to join. Secure your spot for both afternoons in under a minute. From all of us at Amphasys, we'd be delighted to see you there.

Register now Review the program