Steering Council
Visionary leaders who provide grounding knowledge of cutting-edge research, development, partnerships, private-sector engagement, and funding priorities of AgMIP
Co-chairs 2018-2020
Ghassem Asrar
Ghassem R. Asrar is Director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory hosted by the University of Maryland, USA. Prior to this position, he served as Director of World Climate Research Program (WCRP) in Geneva, Switzerland (2008-2013); the Deputy Administrator of Agricultural Research Service (ARS), of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (2006-2008); and in several science positions with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1987-2006. Dr. Asrar earned his graduate degrees in civil engineering and environmental physics from Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. He conducted research and trained undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate students in academia prior to joining NASA in 1987. He has authored more than 180 peer-reviewed scientific and technical papers and books, primarily in the fields of Earth system science and remote sensing. Dr. Asrar is chief editor and member of editorial boards of several scientific journals.
Jean-Francois Soussana
Jean-Francois Soussana is Vice-Chair of INRA for International Affairs since 2017, after being Scientific Director for Environment since 2010. He obtained his PhD in plant physiology at USTL Montpellier in 1986 after an engineer degree in agronomy. After becoming a senior scientist, he led a research lab on grassland ecosystems and global change. Since 1998, Dr. Soussana is member of the Working Group II of IPCC and was Lead Author for the 3rd, 4th and 5th Assessment Reports and is now lead author for the Special Report on land and climate change. He contributes to scientific expertise for FAO (e.g. State of Food and Agriculture, 2016). He coordinates national and European (EC FP5, FP7 and H2020) research projects on climate change and agriculture. He co-chairs the Integrative Research Group of the Global Research Alliance on agricultural greenhouse gases (48 countries) and the Steering Council of AgMIP, an international modeling program on climate change impacts on agriculture. Dr. Soussana has led the sectorial committee on ecosystems and sustainable development of the French research agency (ANR) and is member of the governing boards of the joint programing of research on agriculture, food security and climate change (FACCE JPI, 22 countries) and of the climate KIC (European Knowledge and Innovation Community). He is also a member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Lima-Paris initiative “4 per 1000. Soils for Food Security and Climate” which has been signed during the climate negotiations of COP21. Dr. Soussana has published over 150 refereed research papers in international journals, cited close to 17,000 times (Google Scholar), as well as two books and dozens of book chapters. He has developed novel experimental and mathematical modelling approaches to the impacts of global change on agriculture, soils, biodiversity, carbon and nitrogen cycles and greenhouse gas emissions.
Members 2018-2020
Martin Bwalya
Currently, Head, Programme Development and Strategic Planning in NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) – African Union’s Implementing Agency – is a Machinery Design and Management Engineer by training. Has worked many years in machinery design, specialising in research-and-development of farm reduced tillage equipment within the context of conservation agriculture.Has since 2000, worked in several international organisations in the field of development, in general, and agriculture, food and nutrition security, in particular. Joined NEPAD Agency in 2008 as lead specialist on land and water and farm machinery, moving on to Head the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) – Africa’s continental framework for agricultural transformation – 2009 until 2014; with a focus on strategic leadership and coordination of continental, regional and national expert support on formulation, implementation and evaluation of national and regional agricultural development plans-policiesHas extensive experience in research, foresight analytical work and African development issues including connecting across various national and regional needs and interests in multi-disciplinary and multi-sectorial systems. Additional to agriculture-SLWM and farm machinery, thematic focus include, irrigation and climate smart agriculture – co-chair of the Global Alliance for CSA (GACSA), 2014 to 2018. Work on CAADP gave Mr Bwalya extensive exposal and experience with rural livelihoods, in general, and farming, in particular, in over 30 countries in Africa
Ashfaq Ahmad Chattha
Peter Craufurd
Jessica Fanzo
Jessica Fanzo serves as the Senior Nutrition and Food Systems Officer in the Nutrition and Food Systems Division (ESN) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). While at the UN, Jessica is taking a leave of absence from her Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professorship of Global Food and Agriculture Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University. She also serves as the Director of the Global Food Ethics and Policy Program at Hopkins. She is the Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and was the team leader for the UN High Level Panel of Experts report on Food Systems and Nutrition. Her area of expertise is on the linkages between agriculture, nutrition, health and the environment in the context of sustainable and equitable diets and livelihoods. She was the first laureate of the Carasso Foundation’s Sustainable Diets Prize in 2012 for her work on sustainable food and diets for long-term human health. Jessica has a PhD in nutrition from University of Arizona.
Molly Jahn
Soora Naresh Kumar
Morven A. McLean
Dr. McLean first joined the ILSI Research Foundation in in 2009 as Director of the Center for Environmental Risk Assessment, and in 2013 was additionally appointed lead for sustainable agriculture and nutrition security across the ILSI organization internationally. She has held the position of Chief of Canada’s Plant Biotechnology Office, the federal regulatory authority for the assessment and release of genetically modified plants, and was President of AGBIOS, a consultancy that works internationally with governments, non-governmental organizations, and the public and private sectors on issues of policy and regulation pertaining to genetically modified foods, crops, and forest tree species. Dr. McLean has served as a technical expert on biotechnology risk assessment, regulation and policy for many organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, the United National Environmental Program and the Secretariat to the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as many national governments.
Dr. McLean received her B.Sc. (Agriculture) from McGill University, M.Sc. in environmental biology from the University of Guelph, and Ph.D. in molecular plant virology from the University of British Columbia. She completed her post-doctoral training with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada’s Vancouver Research Station.
Prabhu Pingali
Michael Robertson
Michael Robertson is the Deputy Director of CSIRO Agriculture and Food. He is based in Perth, Western Australia. Educated in New Zealand and Australia, Michael has had a 30 years research career in crop physiology, agronomy, farming systems and modelling, working in the Australian tropics, subtropics, Mediterranean zone as well as developing countries in Asia and Africa. He has produced over 150 journal articles and been an active contributor to the APSIM modelling system and in recent times been overseeing CSIRO’s efforts in ‘digital agriculture’.
Mark W. Rosegrant
Martin van Ittersum
Yan Zhu
Ex-Officio Members
Alessandro Moscuzza
Marco V. Sánchez
Wei Xiong
Principal Investigators (prior to 2018)
Cynthia Rosenzweig, NASA-Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University, USA
Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies where she heads the Climate Impacts Group. Her research involves the development of interdisciplinary methodologies to assess the potential impacts of and adaptations to global environmental change. She is also a professor at Barnard College and a Senior Research Scientist at the Columbia Earth Institute.
James W. Jones, University of Florida, USA
Dr. James W. Jones is a professor at the University of Florida and he specializes in agricultural production systems analysis, simulation, crop and soil modeling, environmental effects on crop growth and yield, and computer applications in agriculture. His research includes measuring and assessing soil carbon sequestration by agricultural systems in developing countries, and climate information systems for agriculture and water resource management in the southeastern U.S.A.
Jerry Hatfield, United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, USA
Dr. Jerry L. Hatfield is currently the Laboratory Director of the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, Iowa. His personal research focuses on quantifying the interactions among the components of the soil-plant-atmosphere system to quantify resilience of cropping systems to climate change.
John Antle, Oregon State University
Dr. John Antle is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, and a University Fellow at Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C. His current research focuses on the sustainability of agricultural systems in industrialized and developing countries, including climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation in agriculture; assessment of environmental and social impacts of agricultural technologies; and geologic carbon sequestration. He is a Fellow and past President of the American Agricultural Economics Association.
Steering Council (prior to 2018)
Sandy Andelman, Conservation International, USA
Eduardo Assad, Embrapa Informatica Agropecuaria, Brazil
Boubacar Barry, West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, Burkina Faso
Peter Craufurd, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Kenya
Jerry Hjelle, International Life Sciences Institute, USA
Julie Howard, USA
Molly Jahn, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Brian Keating, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia
Prabhu Pingali, Cornell University, USA
John Porter, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Mark Rosegrant, International Food Policy Research Institute, USA
Phil Thornton, International Livestock Research Institute, United Kingdom
Martin van Ittersum, Wageningen University UR, Netherlands
Wei Xiong, University of Florida, USA
Ex Officio Members
Alessandro Moscuzza, UK Aid, United Kingdom
Marc Sadler, The World Bank Group, USA
Steve Shafer, United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, USA
Rob Vos, Food and Agriculture Organization, Italy
Stanley Wood, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
Science Steering Group (2010-2014)
Mannava V.K. Sivakumar, Co-chair, World Meteorological Organization, India
Martin Parry, Co-chair, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
PK Aggarwal, International Water Management Institute and Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, India
Eduardo Assad, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria, Brazil
Andre Bationo, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Burkina Faso
Michele Bernardi, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Retired), Italy
Mark Cane, Columbia University, USA
Mark Howden, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia
Molly Jahn, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Mark Rosegrant, International Food Policy Research Institute, USA
Jean-Francois Soussana, Institut National de La Recherche Agronomique, France
Philip Thornton, International Livestock Research Institute Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, United Kingdom
Martin van Ittersum, Wageningen University – Plant Production Systems, The Netherlands