Consortium Board Members
Gebisa Ejeta
Member
Gebisa Ejeta is the Distinguished Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics and International Agriculture at Purdue University, and the Executive Director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security.
Gebisa joined the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in 1979 and conducted seminal sorghum research in Sudan for five years. He joined Purdue University in 1984 as an assistant professor in the Department of Agronomy. Since then, he has led an educational and research program with an emphasis on agricultural research and development in Africa.
Gebisa has been a member of the CGIAR Science Council. He has also served on numerous science and development review panels, technical committees and advisory boards, including those for the Rockefeller Foundation, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a number of national and regional organizations in Africa. He was a member of the team that launched the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, a joint effort of the Rockefeller Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gebisa is a member of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), the Sasakawa Africa Association and the Chicago Council for Global Affairs Agricultural Development Program. He served as a senior advisor to the USAID Administrator before being named as US Science Envoy in 2010.
Gebisa completed his early education in his native Ethiopia, and was awarded a BS in plant sciences from Alemaya College in 1973. He attended graduate school at Purdue University, earning Masters and PhD degrees in plant breeding and genetics.
Gebisa is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Crop Science Society of Agronomy, and the American Society of Agronomy. He received an honorary doctorate from Oklahoma State University in 2010.
Gebisa won the 2009 World Food Prize and, in the same year, was awarded a national medal of honor by the President of Ethiopia.