CGIAR Research Program Directors

William (Bill) Payne has held a number of positions at Texas A&M University, USA. Before joining ICARDA he was Professor of Crop Physiology, Professor of Molecular and Environmental Physiology, and Assistant Director for Research at the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, Texas A&M University.

Bill’s expertise includes crop physiology, systems agronomy, soil physics and hydrology, soil fertility and plant nutrition, international agricultural sustainability, agro-climatology, modeling and crop diversification, as well as research administration and planning.

From 1991 till 1996 Bill worked at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Niger, as a principal scientist in crop physiology. He was the Global Team Leader of the Integrated Systems Project for Asia and Africa, and Agronomy Division Coordinator (Africa). He has wide experience in international agriculture, and has worked in and/or coordinated collaboration with Ghana, China, Georgia, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, Senegal, Thailand and West Africa.

Bill received his MSc and PhD degrees from Texas A&M University in soil science. He has advised 31 MSc and PhD students, and has published 50 peer-reviewed articles, 11 books and book chapters. He is a member of the editorial board of six science publications, and has been honored as a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Agronomy.