Food, Water and Energy Resources Policy Symposium
Plenary Address

Director General
International Food Policy Research Institute

Shenggen Fan was appointed director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in December 2009. After joining IFPRI in 1995 as a research fellow, he led IFPRI’s program on public investment and later became the director of IFPRI’s Development Strategy and Governance Division. Fan has conducted extensive research on pro-poor development strategies in developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. His work has helped identify which kinds of public spending are most effective in reducing poverty and generating agricultural growth.

Before joining IFPRI, he held positions at the International Service for National Agricultural Research in the Netherlands and the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at the University of Arkansas. Fan received his doctorate in applied economics from the University of Minnesota and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Nanjing Agricultural University in China.

Fan has served on the editorial boards of various academic journals and is currently an executive committee member of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. He also has received many awards, including the Distinguished Professional Contribution Award from the Southern Agricultural Economics Association and the Outstanding Alumni Award in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota.