AMES, Iowa -- An internationally recognized scientist and World Food Prize recipient will speak about opportunities and challenges for advancing integrated sustainable development during the 2013 Shivvers Memorial Lecture at Iowa State University.
Hans Herren's talk, "Changing Course in Global Agriculture," will be at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 7, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. It is free and open to the public.
Herren is president of the Millennium Institute, an international non-governmental organization that facilitates sustainable development. A Swiss entomologist, Herren received the 1995 World Food Prize for leading a major biological pest development campaign in Africa, successfully fighting the cassava mealy bug and averting a catastrophic food shortage.
Over the years, Herren's interests shifted toward integrated sustainable development, in particular, linking environmental, plant, animal and human health issues. Herren points to three major challenges in food systems: finding solutions to sustainable productivity, feeding a growing global population and rising food prices.
The Millennium Institute's president since May 2005, Herren previously was director-general of the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya. He also served as director of the Africa Biological Control Center of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Benin.
Herren is the recipient of numerous awards that recognize his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, including election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and to the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World.
Herren's presentation is co-sponsored by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body. More information on ISU lectures is available online at http://www.lectures.iastate.edu, or by calling 515-294-9935.
