Center Directors General
Thomas A. Lumpkin
Director General, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Thomas Lumpkin has been director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) since March 2008. Thomas grew up on a small farm in eastern Washington State, United States, on the boundary between the irrigated desert and rainfed wheat production areas.
As a young man Thomas served in the Peace Corps in the Konkan region of India, teaching rice production, along with wheat and horticultural cropping. He was a professor and later chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Washington State University. Prior to taking up his appointment at CIMMYT, he served for five years as director general of The World Vegetable Center in Taiwan.
Thomas has a BSc in agronomy from Washington State University, and MSc and PhD degrees in agronomy from the University of Hawaii. He did the research for his doctoral thesis in mainland China and was a research scholar at the International Rice Research Institute for six months.