Ahmed Amri: From Morocco to Syria … and back again

Name a tune and chances are Ahmed Amri can sing it for you. If he doesn’t know the lyrics, then tell him once and he’ll add the tune to the extraordinary musical library in his brain. But Ahmed isn’t a professional singer – not yet, at least – he’s a gifted plant genetic scientist who knows even more wheat and barley varieties than tunes.

As a young man working the fields of his family’s farm in the drylands of Morocco, Ahmed never thought he would attend university, let alone become the head of genetic resources at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

And yet, that is exactly what Ahmed – the singing scientist – did.