Keynote Speakers

The Keynote Speakers of the 2010 Edition of ICABR Conference will be:

Giancarlo Moschini, Iowa State University 
"Welfare Effects of US Biofuel Policies"

Gordon Rausser, University of California Berkeley
"Managing R&D Risk in Renewable Energy: Biofuels versus Alternate Technologies"

Chris Somerville, University of California Berkeley
Government Funding of Basic and Applied Biological Research, Government Environmental Regulations, and Consequences on Private Research and Innovation in Biofuels

Johan F.M. Swinnen, Licos - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
“Governance, Regulation and Political Economy of Biotechnology" 


The Santaniello Lecture will be given by Prabhu Pingali (Gates Foundation), and will focus on “Biotechnology for Poverty and Hunger Reduction” 

 Please find below a short biosketch of the Speakers


Giancarlo Moschini
Iowa State University

GianCarlo Moschini is a professor of economics and the Pioneer Endowed Chair in Science and Technology Policy at Iowa State University, where he also serves as Chair of the Department of Economics. Moschini’s research at present focuses on the economics of scientific R&D activities and the impact of new technologies, with emphasis on questions and problems affecting the agricultural and food sectors. Current projects deal with the economic analysis of biotechnology innovations in agriculture, the analysis of intellectual property rights, the study of quality certification with geographical indications, the use of sports data to investigate strategic situations, and the study of biofuels policies. Other research interests include demand analysis and the study of individual decisions under risk. Moschini holds degrees from the Catholic University of Piacenza (Italy, 1978) and the University of Guelph (Canada, 1986). He is a former editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (1998-2000) and, since 2003, he is a Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association.

 

 

Prabhu Pingali
Gates Foundation

Deputy Director, Agriculture Development Division, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Formerly Director of the Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations, from 2002-2007. Pingali was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a Foreign Fellow in May 2007.
He was the President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) from 2003-2006. He was elected Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association in 2006 and of the International Association of Agricultural Economists in 2009.
He was appointed to the U.S. National Academies Round Table on Sustainability (2006-2010). He co-chaired the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Panel’s working group on Future Scenarios. Pingali has three decades of experience analyzing food, agriculture and development policy in Asia, Africa and Latin America. An Indian national he earned a Ph.D. in Economics from North Carolina State University in 1982.
He was Director of the Economics Program at CIMMYT, Mexico from 1996-2002. Prior to joining CIMMYT, he worked at the International Rice Research Institute at Los Baños, Philippines from 1987 to 1996 as an Agricultural Economist, and prior to that at the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department from 1982-1987 as an economist.
He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, Food Research Institute, and an Affiliate professor at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños.
Prabhu Pingali has authored ten books and over 100 referred journal articles and book chapters on food policy, technological change, productivity growth and resource management in the developing world.
He has received several international awards and recognitions for his work


 
  Gordon Rausser
University of California Berkeley

Gordon Rausser is currently the Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor, University of California, Berkeley. He has taught economics and statistics at many prestigious universities, served as Dean of the College of Natural resources at the University of California at Berkeley, twice served as chair of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Berkeley, and twice served as Chair of the Giannini Foundation. He has won 16 national awards and honors for teaching and research.
He has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, an Editor of the American Journal of  Agricultural Economics, and was recently named Editor of the Annual Review of Resource Economics.
While on leave from Berkeley, he was Senior Economist at the President's Council of Economic Advisors and subsequently the Chief Economist at the Agency for International Development in Washington D.C.
He co-founded LECG, Inc. and the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Reform, and erved as Director of the former and President of the latter. He has served on the board of directors of numerous private companies, including four currently.
He is a fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association, American Statistical Association and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a Fulbright Scholar.
Dr. Rausser is a frequent commentator on national radio and television, an active advisor on public policy issues to business and political leaders in many parts of the world.


 

 Chris Somerville
University of California Berkeley

Chris Somerville is the Director of the Energy Biosciences Institute, a collaboration between the University of California Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the energy company BP. He is the Philomathia professor of Alternative Energy at UC Berkeley. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and patents in plant and microbial genetics, genomics, biochemistry, and biotechnology. His current research is focused on the characterization of proteins, such as cellulose synthase, that synthesize the cell walls that are the main components of plant biomass. He is involved in various public and private research activities associated with the development of a biofuels industry in the US. He has been a member of scientific advisory boards of numerous academic institutions and private foundations in Europe and North America. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Canada and is the recipient of numerous scientific awards. He co-founded three biotechnology companies and was chairman of the board of Mendel Biotechnology from 1997-2007 and CEO from 2002-2007.



  Johan F.M. Swinnen
Licos - Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Johan Swinnen holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is a Professor at the University of Leuven, Director of the LICOS-Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels. He was Lead Economist at the World Bank and Economic Advisor at the European Commission. He was the keynote speaker at several IAAE Conferences, chair of the AAEA International Section, chair of the EAAE Congress Program Committee, on the IATRC Programme Committee, associate editor of Agricultural Economics, AJAE, ERAE, and guest editor of several journals. He published extensively in the leading journals. Among his latest books are "Political Power and Economic Policy", "Global Supply Chains, Standards, and the Poor", "From Marx and Mao to the Market". He was elected Fellow of the European Association of Agricultural Economists.