ISAAA Chair is Aberystwyth University Fellow

Dr. Clive James, an agricultural scientist and founder of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), was presented as a Fellow of Aberystwyth University in Wales on July 15, 2011. He graduated from Aberystwyth University in 1961 with a first degree in Agricultural Botany, followed by a PhD from Cambridge University.

James founded the ISAAA in 1990 in order to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and the acquisition and transfer of crop biotechnology applications from the industrial countries, for the benefit of resource-poor farmers in the developing world. The ISAAA is a not-for-profit charitable organization and its mission is to alleviate hunger and poverty in the developing countries. James is author of the widely cited Annual Reviews on the Global Status of GM Crops.

Prior to his association with ISAAA he was Deputy Director General at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, where he worked with the late Dr Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who was the founding patron of ISAAA. The last 25 years have been spent living and/or working in the developing countries of Asia, Latin America, and Africa and devoted to agricultural research and development issues, and crop biotechnology. He has served, as Senior Agricultural Adviser to the Canadian Bilateral Aid Agency (CIDA), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and has consulted for many international development agencies including United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and many international philanthropic foundations, including the Rockefeller and Hitachi Foundations.

Check out http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/news/archive/2011/07/title-101413-en.html for additional information.