Advisory Panel
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Tsedeke Abate
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Richard Jones Richard Jones is an agronomist by training with over 25 years of experience working mainly in eastern and southern Africa. His career started in Botswana carrying out Farming Systems Research and Extension along the fringes of the Okavango Delta where two different ethnic groups practiced mixed farming under very variable rainfed conditions. The insights gained from understanding how people adapted to the agro-ecology were used in the design and participatory evaluation of improved agronomic practices. From there he worked with the Malawi Maize Commodity Team to evaluate maize intercropping systems under relatively favorable rainfall conditions, but where livestock were largely absent and continuous cultivation necessitated the use of purchased inputs to increase productivity. Despite the technological success of improved seeds and fertilizer in this environment, inappropriate policies and failure to address market and organizational issues has constrained broad-based adoption. For the past 10 years his research has been concerned with understanding markets, and how these can be used to create incentives for resource poor smallholder farmers to adopt seed-based technologies through viable seed systems. His research is now focused on how to address product, market, and organizational development so as to stimulate the development of innovation systems that can be sustained without continued external intervention. |
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Andrzej Kilian Andrzej Kilian is the Director of Diversity Arrays Technology Pty Ltd, the company he founded in 2001 to deliver one of his inventions: DNA analysis technology called DArT. During 20 years career in academia and research organisations of Europe, USA and Australia he made many significant contributions to plant genetics, especially in the area of functional and comparative genomics and telomerase biology in humans and plants. He presented over 150 seminars and conference contributions including plenary talks at many international meetings. He authored over 60 peer-reviewed papers and a number of patents. Andrzej is increasingly involved in providing advice on genetic technologies and crop improvement to a range of public and commercial organisations. Since 2006 he is a Member of Editorial Board of Theoretical and Applied Genetics. In 2004 Andrzej was selected as one of the 10 best Australian scientists in The Bulletin/Microsoft plebiscite. |
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John Lynam has for the last year been the Managing Director of the Kilimo Trust, a grant making institution supporting agricultural development in East Africa. Prior to that, he was an Associate Director in the Food Security Program of the Rockefeller Foundation, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He served in that capacity for sixteen years and over that time was involved in a number of programs developing capacities in national, regional, and international agricultural research systems operating in East and Southern Africa. Most recently he managed a program on Enhanced Soil Productivity in East and Southern Africa. He holds a PhD in agricultural economics from the former Food Research Institute at Stanford University. From there he joined the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia, where he worked for eleven years as economist in the Cassava Program, particularly focusing on the integration of social science into biological research programs. He is most recently co-author with Felix Nweke and Dunstan Spencer of The Cassava Transformation: Africa's Best-Kept Secret and co-editor with Cyrus Ndiritu and Adiel Mbabu of Transformation of Agricultural Research Systems in Africa: Lessons from Kenya. |
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Edie Paul Edie Paul is President of GeneFlow, Inc., a software company whose mission is to provide tools and services to facilitate the understanding and use of genetic information. She founded the company in 1997 to address the need for more sophisticated information management solutions in the life sciences. In addition to designing and developing software, Edie helps clients determine how best to model and manage their research data, and periodically teaches at workshops on using molecular markers in breeding. Dr. Paul received her Ph.D. in Plant Breeding from Cornell University in 1997. While at Cornell she was instrumental in creating and curating the SolGenes and RiceGenes USDA-funded genomic databases. Prior to earning her Ph.D., Edie held various positions in Research and Development at a leading database management software company. Edie also holds a B.S. degree in Economics and an M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering, both from the University of Iowa. |
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Emmy Simmons former Assistant Administrator, USAID Ms Emmy Simmons is an American citizen. She recently retired from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), where she worked from 1977, rising through the ranks to become the Assistant Administrator from 2002–2005. She has an MS in agricultural economics from Cornell University, Ithaca, and a BA in international relations from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A committed international development specialist, with emphasis on strategic planning and management for economic growth and change, she is a leader in assessing constraints and opportunities, implementing organizational change and building coalitions. |
