Agenor Mafra-Neto

Dr. Agenor Mafra-Neto is the CEO and founder of ISCA Inc., which has subsidiaries in the USA, Brazil and France. ISCA develops and markets worldwide sustainable alternatives to traditional insecticides through applications of naturally occurring semiochemicals like sex-pheromones that modify insect behavior. ISCA is a world leader in agriculture by making these next generation pest controls highly effective and affordable to farmers of row and specialty crops by developing long lasting and inexpensive flowable formulations that can be efficiently applied by aircraft, drones, tractors, and other mechanical means, and by reducing semiochemical manufacturing cost. These environmentally friendly insect controls affect only the targeted pest species, are not prone to resistance, and naturally biodegrade in the field. Dr. Mafra-Neto’s interest in agriculture dates back a childhood he spent on his family’s farms in the south of Brazil. He earned bachelor and master and degrees in biology at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil, in 1986 and 1988, respectively. He later earned a Ph.D. in entomology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA., in 1993. He was a research associate in entomology at the University of California, Riverside, (UCR) Calif., when he founded ISCA in 1996. He is a trustee of the UCR. An expert for FAO and government agencies like the, NSF, NIH, USDA, Ministries of Agriculture, and a speaker at Ag sustainability, entomology, and chemical ecology conferences worldwide.