Former Bioversity International Director General nominated for prestigious scientific prize

Dr Emile Frison, Bioversity International's Director General from 2003 to 2013, has been nominated for the Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for Outstanding Career in Agriculture.

The Louis Malassis Outstanding Career in Agricultural Development Prize, created by the Agropolis Fondation, is awarded to a person still in activity whose professional career is devoted to agricultural development, be it in the field of research, innovation, development or policy.

Emile Frison has spent most of his career in international agricultural research for development, starting at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria in 1979. In the beginning of his career at Bioversity International, Emile served as a Senior Scientist then moving to the position of Director of Bioversity’s regional office for Europe and, until his appointment to the top position at Bioversity, was Director of the organization’s International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain in Montpellier, France.

Throughout his tenure as Director General of Bioversity International, Dr Emile Frison devised a new strategy for addressing problems of the food system, by promoting a greater and wiser use of agricultural biodiversity.

“Implementing this strategy was challenging, as most funding sources still focus on single objectives such as raising productivity, addressing single nutrient deficiencies or drought resistance,” Dr Frison told Farming First. “However, there are many examples of successful projects, implemented by Bioversity and its partners, that address more than one single objective.”

Learn more about these projects and read the full Farming First article here.