Ghassem Asrar
Ghassem R. Asrar is Senior Vice President for Science at Universities Space Research Association in Maryland, USA. Prior to this position, he served as Director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory hosted by the University of Maryland, College Park, USA (2013-2019); 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 200 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 and technical journals, and chair/member of several national and international scientific advisory committees. He has a keen interest in STEM education and mentoring and developing future generation of science. Engineering and technology leaders in Earth and space sciences.
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
Ashfaq Ahmad Chattha is a Professor at the Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad in Pakistan. He is serving as the Heading Program Chair, Climate Change at the Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, which is funded by the USAID. He is also currently serving as a Vice Chairman of the Confucius Institute, at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad since 2014. He has been associated with University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan since 2001, and has established various laboratory facilities, and extension projects at the organization, including establishment of Agro-Climatology Lab at the Department of Agronomy, establishment of Agricultural Information Systems, installation of FATE and Rain Out Shelter for stress experiments, upgradation of facilities for plant analysis at Climate Change Cell and Glasshouse at Field Lab, at the Department of Agronomy. He has co-authored 70 scientific research paper with impact factor, 60 scientific research papers in HEC-recognized journals, and has written around more than five chapters in international published books.
Peter Craufurd
Peter Craufurd has more than 30 years’ experience in research in tropical agriculture. He started his career at ICRISAT in India working on millet and sorghum physiology/agronomy. He then worked at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge on drought tolerance in barley, before moving to Kano Nigeria to work on cowpeas and cereal/legume systems. Peter then returned to the University of Reading where he worked on heat tolerance, climate change impact modelling, seed systems, aflatoxin, and on-farm participatory research in India and Africa. He also ran the MSc Agriculture for Development. Since 2010 Peter has been working in the CGIAR, first in India with ICRISAT and in Kenya with CIMMYT. He currently leads the Sustainable Intensification Program for CIMMYT in Africa and is the PI for TAMASA (Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale in Africa) project.
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
Molly Jahn is a professor in the Department of Agronomy, the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, and the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she also served as the 12th dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station and Special Advisor to the Provost for Sustainability Sciences. She currently holds appointments as Guest Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at Columbia University. In 2009-10 she was appointed Deputy and Acting Under Secretary of USDA by President Barack Obama. She is director of outreach for the $14.7M NASA Earth Observations for Food Security and Agriculture Consortium, leads a project on food security, food systems and national security interests for the US Government, serves as a Special Government Employee on NASA’s Applied Sciences Advisory Committee, sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Academies of Science Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources. She consults globally for the seed industry, insurance and commodity trading, entertainment, technology, intelligence, government, philanthropic organizations, and international multi-lateral institutions on agriculture, food security, risk in food systems, life sciences and environment. She teaches a course on Systems Thinking, holds degrees from Swarthmore College, MIT and Cornell, and has received Honorary Doctor of Science degrees in both the UK and US
Soora Naresh Kumar
Soora Naresh Kumar is Professor at the Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. He is leading the InfoCrop modelling group and is involved in AgMIP since its inception in 2011 as a member of AgMIP-wheat, rice, maize and potato pilot groups. He has developed models for perennials (coconut, grape) and annual crops (green gram and others). Research interests include assessment of impacts, adaptation gains and vulnerability of major crops to climate change in India and implementation of climate change adaptation in farmers’ fields. He is the Government of India as well as IPCC Expert Reviewer for IPCC reports. Currently leading the National Facility for Capacity Building on Simulation Modelling in Agriculture. He is also leading the modelling teams in National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project and in Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change, Govt of India project.
Morven A. McLean
Morven A. McLean is the Chief Executive Officer of the Agriculture & Food Systems Institute (AFSI), a non-profit, scientific organization focused on advancing and disseminating science for public benefit. AFSI ’s mission is to achieve safe and sustainable agri-food systems by providing thought leadership and creating a collaborative environment that fosters scientific innovation across disciplines, sectors, and geographies. Dr. McLean provides strategic direction to, and management of, AFSI’s multi-sectoral, transdisciplinary scientific programs, investigator-initiated research, and education and training activities.
Prior to joining AFSI, Dr. McLean 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 worked 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 United Nations 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 currently serves on the Agricultural Systems, Health and Nutrition Advisory Board at the University of Florida, the Global Steering Council for the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, and on the Board of Trustees for the National Fund for the U.S. Botanic Garden. She 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.
Prabhu Pingali
Prabhu Pingali is a Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, with a joint appointment in the Division of Nutritional Sciences, and the Founding Director of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). Prior to joining Cornell, he was the Deputy Director, Agricultural Development Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, from 2008–May 2013. In addition, he worked with the CGIAR for 15 years from 1987-2002, first with IRRI in the Philippines and then with CIMMYT in Mexico. Pingali is a member in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and an AAEA Fellow. He has over three decades of experience working with some of the leading international agricultural development organizations as a research economist, development practitioner and senior manager. Pingali has written 10 books and over 100 referred journal articles and book chapters on food policy.
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
Mark W. Rosegrant is a Research Fellow Emeritus at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC. With a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, he has extensive experience in research and policy analysis in agriculture and economic development, with an emphasis on water resources and other natural resource and agricultural policy issues as they impact food security, rural livelihoods, and environmental sustainability. From 2003 to 2018 he directed research on climate change, water resources, sustainable land management, genetic resources and biotechnology, and agriculture and energy. He is the author or editor of 15 books and over 100 refereed papers in agricultural economics, water resources, and food policy analysis. Dr. Rosegrant has won numerous awards, such as Outstanding Journal Article (2008), Quality of Communications Award (2004), and Distinguished Policy Contribution Award (2002) awarded by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (formerly American Agricultural Economics Association); and Best Article Award (2005) from the International Water Resources Association. Dr. Rosegrant is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
Martin van Ittersum
Martin van Ittersum holds a PhD in Agricultural and Environmental Science from Wageningen University. He is a professor at the Plant Production Systems group of the same university. His research and teaching focus on research concepts and methods for the analysis, design and integrated assessment of agricultural systems from field to farm, regional and global level. He has led and is leading a large number of (inter)national projects dealing with global food availability, integrated assessment of agricultural systems, yield gap analysis, phosphorus scarcity and climate change. Martin is currently leading the Global Yield Gap Atlas project (www.yieldgap.org) to map the scope for increasing agricultural production on current agricultural land. In 2013 he was the co-chair of the 1st International Conference on Global Food Security and he is the co-chair of the 4th edition of this conference to be held in Montpellier in 2020. In 2015 and 2016 he was the interim chair of the Farming Systems Ecology group at Wageningen University. He has authored over 150 papers in international journals and supervised many MSc and PhD students.
Yan Zhu
Yan Zhu received her PhD degree from the Nanjing Agricultural University, China in 2003, now she is the Dean of College of Agriculture and the Director of National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture at Nanjing Agricultural University. Her research works are mainly focused on information agriculture, specifically on crop modelling, crop monitoring, and evaluation of climate change impact. Over 120 papers in journals indexed by the Web of Science had been published, 30 National Invention Patents had been issued, and supervised over 40 graduate students and 2 postdoctoral scholars in the past 15 years. Due to her outstanding achievements, she has awarded 4 National Second-Class Progress Awards for Science & Technology of China, and been elected to the “The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, China” and “14th Young Women Scientist Award of China” in 2017, “Leading Young Talents of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of China” in 2013, and “12th Young Scientist Award of China” in 2011.
Ex-Officio Members
Alessandro Moscuzza
Alessandro Moscuzza is a Climate Change and Environment Adviser with the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID-UKaid) in London and has been the DFID Senior Responsible Owner for the AgMIP project from 2011 to 2017. He has worked in DFID-UKaid since 2003 where he has held various postings in the UK and overseas including Africa, Asia and in Brussels, where he was seconded to the European Commission. He currently manages a portfolio of research programmes focusing on environmental degradation, climate change and renewable energy. He holds an MA and an MSc from the University of London and is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London and a member of the American Geophysical Union.
Marco V. Sánchez
Marco V. Sánchez is the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Development Economics Division at FAO, in Rome. Previously, he was associated with the Development Policy Analysis Division (DPAD) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) (2006 –2017) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (2004-2006). He has also been consultant to international organizations such as UNDP, IFPRI and IADB (2000-2004) and worked as a lecturer and researcher at National University of Costa Rica (1995-1999) and the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University (ISS) in the Netherlands (2000-2004). He accumulates a respectable record of publications on cross-cutting economic development issues including in peer-reviewed international journals and books. He also specializes in the use of computable general equilibrium models and survey-based microsimulation for analysis of development policies that tackle issues regarding agriculture, climate, poverty and inequality.
Wei Xiong
Wei Xiong is a senior crop physiologist in International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). He is a research professor in the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture (IEDA) at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). He worked as a research fellow at IIASA from 2012-2014. His research focuses on the interactions between climate, management, and crop production with a primary focus on developing countries. He specifically works on up-scaling the application of crop models such as DSSAT and EPIC at large scale. He analyzes the G×E×M interaction by utilizing multiple modeling tools. He combines the process-based models with phenotyping and envityping. His research areas also include cloud-based application of agricultural models and big data analysis of nexus of agriculture, water, and energy security. Dr. Xiong has over 20 years’ experience on expertise of climate change impacts, food security, and agricultural adaptation. He received his PhD in Agronomy from the China Agricultural University in 2004, and B.Sc in Applied Meteorology from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2001. Dr. Xiong completed his post-doctoral research at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington D.C and the University of Florida.
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
