Announcements

Obituaries:

• Richard H. Demuth: We are saddened to inform you that Dick Demuth, the first Chair of the CGIAR, died on June 14, 2006.
• Vanesssa Sequeira: It is with extreme sorrow we inform you of the tragic death of Vanessa Sequeira, one of CIFOR's partner scientists, in early September, while researching the local use of forest products in Sene Madureira, Acre, Brazil.

New Board Chair:

• Yves Savidan took over as the new Chair of CIAT Board of Trustees on 19 May 2006. Handing over the office to him, Dr. James W. Jones, outgoing Board Chair, said: "I am happy to leave the Board and CIAT is such good hands. I am very confident that Yves will provide strong leadership for the Board and CIAT. His knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, leadership abilities, and personality are ideally suited for this new responsibility." Dr. Savidan, a national of France, joined as a member of CIAT Board of Trustees in 2003. Until he took over as Board Chair, he had been serving as a member of the Program, Executive and Finance, and Nomination Committees of the Board. He chaired the Program Committee from 2004 to 2006. More: http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/about_ciat/board.htm

New Director General:

• Papa Abdoulaye Seck of Senegal was appointed the incoming Director General of the Africa Rice Center (WARDA) at an Extraordinary Session of the WARDA Council of Ministers on 22 June 2006 in Abuja, Nigeria. He will succeed Dr Kanayo F. Nwanze, WARDA's present Director General, whose second and final term will end in November 2006. Click here to read more.

Science Council Appointments:

• Mariza Barbosa, Special Adviser to the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, Brazil, has been appointed to the Science Council.

Awards:

• IRRI named CIO 100 Honoree for 2006: CIO Asia, the Magazine for Information Executives, has officially recognized IRRI as one of Asia's top strategic users of IT over the past year.

CGIAR at International Fora

• July 31, 2006, Washington, DC: Hybrid Intellectual Property in Agricultural Research: a Brainstorming Session organized by the CGIAR Secretariat. Read more.
• July 17-19, 2006, Brasilia, Brazil: International Workshop: Transforming Tropical Agriculture: An Assessment of Major Technological, Institutional and Policy Innovations. Organized and sponsored by : the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), with the Co-Sponsorship of the World Bank. Read more.