Keynote Speakers
The Final Program will be available on May 15th, 2009
SPECIAL ADDRESS
Edmund Phelps, McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia, and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Economics
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Derek Byerlee will give a presentation on "Feeding the World in 2050: the Yield Challenge for Cereals and the Role of Biotechnology "
Ingo Potrykus will give a presentation on "GMO-projects for public goods are faced with prohibitive conditions"
BIOSKETCH
DEREK BYERLEE from Australia has wide experience in agricultural and rural development, having lived more than 20 years in Asia, Latin America, and Africa in filling various posts. Most recently he has been Rural Strategy Adviser in the Agricultural and Rural Development Department of the World Bank, and Lead Economist for the Agricultural and Rural Development in the Country Office for Ethiopia and Sudan, based in Addis Ababa. Before joining the Bank he was Director of Economics at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico, and Associate Professor, Michigan State University, USA. He has published widely in several fields of agricultural development and has many years of practical experience of working directly with farmers..
Over the years, he has made important contributions to other areas, notably risk and uncertainty, labor migration and labor markets, and agricultural policy analysis. Throughout his career he has served as adviser and mentor for numerous graduate students, especially from the developing world.
EDMUND PHELPS is McVickar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University, director of Columbia's Center on Capitalism and Society and the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Economics. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Science and both a Distinguished Fellow and a former Vice-President of the American Economic Association. This year he was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, won the Premio Pico della Mirandola for humanism and the Kiel Global Economy Prize. His research has spanned economic growth, including the Golden Rule of saving, microeconomic foundations of inflation and employment dynamics, structuralist models of unemployment determination, dynamism and inclusion in capitalist and corporatist systems, and the good economy.
INGO POTRYKUS is Emeritus Professor of Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. PhD in Plant Genetics 1968 at Max-Planck-Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany; Ass. Professor, Institute of Plant Physiology, Stuttgart-Hohenheim 1970-74. Research Group Leader, Max-Planck-Institute for Genetics, Ladenburg-Heidelberg 1974-76; Research Group Leader, Friedrich Miescher-Institute, Basel, Switzerland 1976-86; Full Professor in Plant Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zuerich 1986-99.
Science: Contributions to food security in developing countries. Focusing on development and application of genetic engineering technology for and to "food security" crops such as rice (Oryza sativa), wheat (Triticum aestivum), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and cassava (Manihot esculenta). Focusing on problems areas of disease- and pest resistance, improved food quality, improved yield, improved exploitation of natural resources, and improved bio-safety. Inventor of "Golden Rice" and chairman of Humanitarian Golden Rice Board and Network. Ca 340 publications in peer-reviewed journals; 30 patents.
Distinctions: KUMHO (ISPMB) Science International Award in Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology 2000. American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Leadership in Science Public Service Award 2001. Crop Science of America (CSSA) Klepper Endowment Lectureship 2001, CSSA President’s Award 2002, European Culture Award in Science 2002, Honorary Doctor, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences 2002, University of Freiburg, Germany 2007.
“Top100 living contributor to biotechnology”, elected by the peers of the journal “Scientist” in 2005. “The most influential scientist” in the area of Agricultural, Industrial, and Environmental Biotechnology for the decade 1995-2005, elected by the peers of Nature Biotechnology 2006. Cover TIME Magazine July 31, 2000. Elected to Academia Europaea, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences,