Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez
Director, McGill Institute for Global Food Security; Margaret A. Gilliam Faculty Scholar in Food Security, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, McGill University
Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez is the Director of the McGill Institute for Global Food Security and an Associate Professor at McGill University. He has previously worked in nutrition and food security research at the Mexican Public Health Institute (1996-1997), the Nutrition Department at the University of California, Davis (1998-2003), and the Department of Human Nutrition at the Ohio State University (2003-2012. After graduating as a physician in 1992 at the University Friedrich Schiller in Germany, Dr. Melgar-Quiñonez received his doctoral degree in 1996 for his dissertation on the main causes of mortality in Mozambique. In Mexico, he worked on projects assessing the dietary intake among Mexican women. In the United States, Dr. Melgar-Quiñonez worked on food insecurity research with Latino immigrants, setting up the basis for subsequent studies in rural communities in several Latin American countries. His studies lead to further validation studies on adapted household food security instruments in a wide range of countries (e.g., Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Dominica Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, and Guatemala, Mexico, The Philippines). The global presence of his research supported the development of a broad collaboration network that includes the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Inter American Institute of Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA), the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), several universities, and governmental and non-governmental food security agencies. In addition to his validation studies, Dr. Melgar-Quiñonez conducts studies on national food security measurements applied within Demographic and Health Surveys in several Latin American countries. Dr Melgar-Quiñonez’ work encompasses the use of mathematical models to assess psychometric characteristics of such tools. Furthermore, Dr. Melgar-Quiñonez’ research focuses also the association between food insecurity and nutrition and health outcomes. His work illustrates the complexity of food insecurity when showing the relationship between this phenomenon and the so called “double burden” of malnutrition and overweight in impoverished populations.
Viacheslav Adamchuk
Associate Professor, Department of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University
Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, Dr. Adamchuk obtained a mechanical engineering degree from the National Agricultural University of Ukraine in his hometown. Later, he received both MS and PhD degrees in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA). Shortly after graduating, Dr. Adamchuk began his academic career as a faculty member in the Biological Systems Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Lincoln, Nebraska, USA). There, he taught university students, conducted research and delivered outreach programs relevant to precision agriculture, spatial data management, and education robotics. Also he was involved in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tractor testing program and developed a methodology to validate the accuracy of tractor auto-guidance systems. After almost ten years in Nebraska, Dr. Adamchuk was appointed to the Bioresource Engineering Department at McGill University, while retaining his adjunct status at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Adamchuk’s research has focused on the development and deployment of on-the-go soil sensing technology to enhance the economic and environmental benefits of precision agriculture. Since he began his research in the 90s, Dr. Adamchuk developed and evaluated a fleet of on-the-go soil sensor prototypes capable of mapping physical and chemical soil attributes while moving across an agricultural field. These sensors produce geo-referenced data to quantify spatial soil heterogeneity, which may be used to prescribe differentiated soil treatments according to local needs. Along with his work on sensors, Dr. Adamchuk has conducted numeric analysis of the agro-economic value of sensor-based information. Through recent studies on soil and crop sensor fusion and data clustering, he was able to further investigate the challenges faced by early adopters. Through his outreach activities, Dr. Adamchuk has taught a number of programs dedicated to a systems approach in adopting smart farming technologies around the world.
Website: http://adamchukpa.mcgill.ca
Santiago Alba Corral
Director of Policy Innovation and Partnerships, CARE Canada
Santiago Alba-Corral is the Senior Director for International Development at CARE Canada and chairs the CARE International Food and Security Steering Committee. Until recently, he was the Director of Policy, Innovation and Partnerships at CARE Canada.
After working for 10 years in rural development and environmental issues based in Europe, Santiago relocated to Southern Africa. There, he worked as a Technical Advisor with the International Aid Agency of Spain (AECI), mainly in Land Reform processes. Before moving to CARE in 2010, he was the Technical and Research Director at Action Contre la Faim-Canada. He has worked extensively internationally, mostly in Africa and the Middle East. Santiago was member of the UNICEF lead Global Nutritional Cluster; he was , also, in the inception committee of the Global Food Security Cluster lead by WFP and FAO. He has collaborated on different technical working groups on the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification).
Santiago received a Master degree in international agriculture and rural development from Cornell University (NY) while working at the Cornell Institute for African Development, a Master degree in environmental science from the European Social Funds Program, and a Bachelor degree in agricultural engineering from the University of La Rioja (Spain).
Santiago’s passion for sustainable and equitable food systems has resulted in a career focused in working with the most poor and vulnerable women and men in the global south. Santiago shares CARE’s vision of a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome.
Audia Barnett
Representative to Canada, Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA), Ottawa, ON
Audia Barnett is a graduate of the University of Alberta, Canada, having completed a M.Sc. degree in Food Science. An alumnus of the University of the West Indies, with a Ph.D. in Chemistry and B.Sc. degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry, she has also served as Research Fellow at the MIGAL Galilee Technological Centre (Israel) and the Agrotechnological Research Institute (The Netherlands).
Dr. Barnett was appointed IICA Representative to Canada late 2010. Based in Ottawa, her role includes forging technical co-operation alliances between Agricultural stakeholders in Canada and Latin America and the Caribbean towards fostering sustainable and competitive agriculture in the Americas.
She was previously the Executive Director of the Scientific Research Council (SRC) in Jamaica, where she served with distinction for eight years. The SRC is the principal public sector agency responsible for undertaking, fostering and coordinating scientific research and development in Jamaica.
Dr Barnett has extensive experience in Food Science and Technology, having served as adjunct lecturer at the University of the West Indies, as well as Consultant to the Food Industry for over fifteen years. She is the past Focal Point for the Inter-Governmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Convenor of the Food Safety Subcommittee of the National Food and Nutrition Committee of Jamaica, Vice President of the Jamaica Society of Scientists and Technologists as well as Professional Member of the Institute of Food Technologists (USA). She is currently adjunct Professor at the University of Technology, in Jamaica. Her professional interests include Food Safety, Biotechnology, Natural Products, Innovation and Science Policy, areas in which she has published both peer-reviewed papers and articles for the public press.
She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Pelican Award (UWI) and Fellow, Americas 2000 Project (Rice University, USA).
Caroline Begg
Faculty Lecturer, Department of Plant Science, McGill University
Caroline Begg’s main field of research is the development of sustainable agriculture practices. Her goal is to increase agricultural producer's awareness of variability within the field and the impact this has on crop growth, on the application of fertilizers and manures and the effect on nutrient and soil loss from fields. The research involves on-farm fieldwork. She supervises 10 to 15 undergraduate projects per year on sustainable agriculture and has developed linkages for students to do internships on Community supported agriculture farms. Dr Begg is the advisor to five student organizations in the Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences whose mandate is to develop projects based on sustainable food systems.
David Bergvinson
Director General, International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Dr. Bergvinson took on his five-year post of Director General of ICRISAT on January 01, 2015. Prior to joining ICRISAT, he was Senior Program Officer, Crop Value Chains and Digital Design for Agriculture Development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this role, he accelerated the development and delivery of farmer-preferred products and services for staple crops in the developing world through formulating strategies, forging partnerships and applying digital technologies. He was responsible for the Foundation's first Discovery grant to develop C4 Rice as well as negotiated the first agriculture grant with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences that enabled the shipment of elite rice varieties to national rice research partners in Africa and Asia.
Prior to joining the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr Bergvinson was a Senior Scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) at its Mexico headquarters for over 12 years. His research background is in crop improvement, plant biochemistry, integrated pest management, and entomology. He has contributed to strengthening other development organizations such the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) by reviewing over 350 grants while serving on AGRA's Grants Review Committee. Dr. Bergvinson is the recipient of the CGIAR Science Award for Promising Young Scientist, as well as several service awards from CIMMYT.
Dr Bergvinson has a well-articulated passion for smallholder agriculture, and a strong desire to improve the lives of the hundreds of millions of impoverished small farmers and their families living in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He regards himself as an agent of change, and he possesses a clear vision for how science and partnerships can come together to accelerate the pace of development in the world's poorest and most disadvantaged agrarian regions.
Dr Bergvinson obtained his B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Masters of Pest Management from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, and his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Ottawa, Canada. He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in maize biochemistry and pathology.
Laurette Dubé
Professor and James McGill Chair of Consumer and Lifestyle Psychology and Marketing, Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University
Laurette Dubé is Full Professor and holds the James McGill Chair of consumer and lifestyle psychology and marketing at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University, which she joined in 1995. Dr. Dubé’s lifetime research interest bears on the study of affects and behavioral economic processes underlying consumption, lifestyle, and health behavior, and how such knowledge can inspire more effective behavioral change and ecosystem transformation. Beyond scientific publications in the leading scientific journals of her field, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Management Information System Quarterly and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, her work has been presented in leading general audience and business publications such as Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and The Economist.
Dubé is also the founding chair and scientific director of the McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics. The center has pioneered a unique integrative approach to foster convergence between disciplinary and sectoral science, policy and innovation, such that single and collective action throughout society target human and economic development at the same time. Convergent innovation propounds that a comprehensive redress of complex societal problems requires technological innovation to be synergistically bundled with other types of innovation such as social, organizational, financial and institutional innovations, creating convergent outcomes. In partnership with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (Agriculture for Nutrition and Health program) and the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (the INCLEN Trust International), the Center is spearheading the formation of a convergent innovation coalition, with roadmap projects targeting food and nutrition security, prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, as well as technology-enabled affordable food, health and healthcare.
Dr. Dubé received the YMCA Women of Distinction Award for the social sciences in 2011 and The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Pierre Fobert
Principal Research Officer, Team Lead, BioProcessing, National Research Council, Ottawa
Dr. Pierre Fobert is a Principal Research Officer and Team Leader, BioProcessing, for the National Research Council’s Aquatic and Crops Resource Development portfolio. Dr. Fobert received his Ph.D. in plant molecular biology from Carleton University and joined the NRC in 1994 following post-doctoral stages at the John Innes Centre and the Canadian Forestry Service. He has held a number of leadership positions within and outside of the NRC, including acting as Director of Research and Development from 2013-2015. An expert in plant genomics, Dr. Fobert applies his knowledge towards the understanding and improvement of agronomically important traits, in particular disease resistance and seed oil production. Through extensive collaboration with industry, other government departments, and academia, he has secured research funding from Canada and abroad, published widely in peer-reviewed journals and books, and holds several patents. He recently led the development of a large research pillar focused on enhancing resistance to Fusarium Head Blight and rust disease within the Canadian Wheat Alliance, a partnership between the NRC, Agriculture Agri-Food Canada, the University of Saskatchewan and the province of Saskatchewan.
Anja Geitmann
Dean, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University
Anja Geitmann is Professor and Dean at the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of McGill University. From 2001 to 2015 she was Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences of the Université de Montréal and Scientist at the Institut de recherche en biologie végétale. She obtained her PhD in 1997 from the University of Siena (Italy), following undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Constance (Germany), Oregon State University (USA), and Stockholm University (Sweden). Between 1997 and 2001 she performed postdoctoral research at the Université Laval, Québec, and at the University of Wageningen, The Netherlands. She currently serves as President of the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists and as Past-President of the Microscopical Society of Canada. She is the Vice-President of the International Association of Plant Sexual Reproduction Research. She serves on the editorial boards of multiple scientific journals including Plant Physiology. Dr. Geitmann leads an interdisciplinary team of cell biologists and mechanical engineers and her research program focuses on the biomechanical principles governing plant development and reproduction.
Daniel Haberman
MSc Student (Natural Resource Sciences), McGill University
Born in Montreal, Daniel is currently an M.Sc. student in the department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill. His thesis examines how large cities rely on their hinterlands to provide an array of ecosystem services (including food, water, and recreation) and how this relationship differs in cities around the world due to differences in climate and integration into global trade markets. More broadly, he is interested in sustainable natural resource management and the role of urban ecosystems.
Gordon Hickey
William Dawson Scholar, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University
Dr. Gordon M. Hickey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University, Canada, and Co-Director of the McGill-United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Collaborating Centre on Environmental Assessment. He is also a Faculty member of the McGill-Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) program in Panama, an Associate Member of the McGill School of Environment and an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science at the University of Melbourne, Australia. In partnership with colleagues at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), he is presently leading a $4.3M project titled: Enhancing Ecologically Resilient Food Security in the Semi-Arid Midlands of Kenya, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). His international research applies mixed-methods techniques to explore the institutional processes affecting natural resource-related policy-making and implementation, with a particular focus on integrating scientific knowledge for innovation. He is currently an Associate Editor of the Springer journal Food Security.
Laura Husak
Research Award Recipient, Agriculture and Food Security, International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Ottawa
Laura Husak is a Research Award Recipient in Agriculture and Food Security at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa. Laura has a Master’s in Anthropology and an undergraduate degree in Global Political Economy from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Laura has conducted field research on participatory technology development for traditional crops in Nepal, and on the commercialization plans for post-harvest technologies in Sri Lankan fresh fruit sector. Laura’s research interest is development practice at the intersections of science, business and society.
Laura’s passion for sustainable food systems is rooted in her home province of Manitoba, where she is actively involved in building connections between rural and urban communities through local food initiatives and sustainability education programs with the non-profit organization, Harvest Moon Society. Laura speaks publically to promote youth engagement in development and social entrepreneurship. She was a youth entrepreneur delegate at the 2014 Uniterra International Seminar hosted by World University Service of Canada (WUSC) in Lima, Peru. She tweets on issues in agriculture, food security and sustainable development from @ldhusak.
Nicolas Kosoy
Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University
Nicolas Kosoy is an ecological economist interested in the interface between environmental policy and human development. He completed his PhD in Ecological Economics in 2008 at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) (Spain), where he also coursed an MSc in Economics and Natural Resource Management (2005). He has a postgraduate degree in Conservation Biology from the Durrell Institute for Conservation and Ecology at Kent University (2002) and an undergraduate degree in Biology from the Universidad Simon Bolivar (Venezuela) (2001). Currently, he holds an assistant professorship tenure track at McGill University and is a professor at McGill School of Environment and at the Department of Natural Resource Sciences. Previously, Nicolas Kosoy was a Senior Programme Officer for the United Nations Environment Programme where he coordinated the implementation of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment between 2008-2010. he is interested in the interface of climate, energy and land-use governance, including the analysis of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), as well as in alternative economic models and plural values as they characterize degrowth research. Kosoy has undertaken fieldwork in Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela, Kenya, Uganda, Lao PDR, and Thailand and is now starting new research projects in other Latin American, Asian and African countries. His courses address a wide range of topics and debates in the area of ecological economics, political ecology and global environmental policy at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in McGill since 2010.
Chandra A. Madramootoo
Professor, Department of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University
Chandra Madramootoo is a James McGill Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering. He was Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill from 2005 to 2015. Prior to that, he was Director of the Brace Centre for Water Resources Management. In an academic career of over 30 years at McGill, he has supervised over 80 graduate students, and authored or co-authored over 200 refereed journal papers. He has been invited to deliver some 100 presentations at national and international conferences. Professor Madramootoo’s areas of expertise include water management, irrigation, drainage, agricultural research, and international agriculture development. He has built a very strongly funded research program covering various aspects of water resources management, and soil and water engineering. He continues to study extensively the hydrology and water quality of surface and subsurface drained fields, the development of innovative technologies to predict crop water requirements, and the impacts of various water management practices on greenhouse gas emissions.
Chandra Madramootoo has been recognized with numerous awards for his contributions to water resources and food security teaching and research, including a DSc (honoris causa) from the University of Guelph and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Bioengineering and the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Michael Ngadi
Professor, Department of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University
Dr. Ngadi is a leading Food and Bioprocess Engineer in Canada. He earned his doctoral degree from Dalhousie University (formerly TUNS) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He previously worked with Laval University and University of Georgia before joining McGill University in 1998. He is a professional member of the Canadian Society for Bioengineering (CSBE), American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).
Dr. Ngadi’s research interest is understanding how product and process inter-relate and translated to optimized food quality and safety. The emphasis of his work is on mathematical modelling and optimization, heat and mass transfer phenomena, food properties, hyperspectral imaging, deep-fat frying and cooking processes, bulk packaging and non-thermal technologies including pulsed electric fields (PEF), ultraviolet light (UV), and ozone. Dr. Ngadi also works on biofuels and bioproducts. The major thrust of his research in this regard is on enhanced biochemical conversion of waste biomass into biofuels as well developing innovation strategies for conversion of biomass into bioproducts.
Kanayo F. Nwanze
President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Kanayo F. Nwanze was appointed is on his second four-year term as President of IFAD. A Nigerian national, Nwanze has a strong record as an advocate and leader with a keen understanding of complex development issues. He has over 35 years of experience across three continents, focusing on poverty reduction through agriculture, rural development and research. Under Nwanze’s guidance, IFAD has stepped up its advocacy efforts to ensure that agriculture is a central part of the international development agenda, and that governments recognize the concerns of smallholder farmers and other poor rural people. As an intellectual leader on issues of food security, Nwanze has been a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Food Security since 2010, and formerly chaired the group.
During Nwanze’s tenure, IFAD has increased the number of outposted country programme managers and country offices. This heightened field presence enhances IFAD’s direct supervision of its projects, benefiting Member States, partner institutions and project participants alike. As a result, IFAD has become a valued and results-focused international development partner, is delivering a much larger programme of loans and grants, and extending its reach to more people. Nwanze served as IFAD’s Vice-President for two years before taking the organization’s helm. Prior to that, he was Director-General of the Africa Rice Center for a decade. Nwanze was instrumental in introducing and promoting New Rice for Africa, or NERICA, a high-yield, drought- and pest-resistant rice variety developed specifically for the African landscape. He also transformed the Center from a West African to an Africa-wide organization with a global reputation for excellence. In addition, Nwanze has held senior positions at research centres affiliated with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in Africa and Asia, and played a key role in establishing the Alliance of CGIAR Centers as a vehicle for collective action.
Nwanze earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1971, and a Doctorate in Agricultural Entomology from Kansas State University, United States, in 1975. He has published extensively, is a member of several scientific associations and has served on various executive boards. Nwanze has received numerous honours and awards from governments and international institutions – including Commander of the National Order of Merit of Côte d’Ivoire, Officer of the National Order of Benin and National Order of Agricultural Merit of France – as well as academic acknowledgements, including Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from McGill University, Canada.
Marian Amaka Odenigbo
Special Adviser on Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture, East and Southern Africa Division, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Marian Amaka Odenigbo is a registered nutritionist and special adviser on nutrition-sensitive agriculture in IFAD's East and Southern Africa (ESA) Division. She is leading and managing nutrition mainstreaming in ESA programmes and strengthening ESA's position on nutrition-sensitive agriculture and rural development. Before joining ESA, she provided technical support to Policy and Technical Advisory Division (PTA), IFAD on nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Her PhD in human nutrition focuses on community health nutrition, food consumption pattern, assessment of nutritional values and glycaemic indices of traditional foods.
She has led the management of nutrition component in a multinational rice postharvest project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency on enhancing food security in Africa from 2011-2013 at McGill University, Canada.
As a senior lecturer at the University of Agriculture in Nigeria, she had teaching and research experiences , supervised community projects and have over 30 international and national scientific publications. In her current capacity as IFAD special adviser on nutrition, she collaborated with FAO on the consensus meeting for selection of minimum dietary diversity indicator for women. She also participated in the joint work of the Rome based UN food agencies (IFAD, FAO, WFP) on selection of targets and indicators in contribution to the discussions on post-2015 development agenda for sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition. Marian ensures IFAD’s active participation in UN Nutrition Working Groups in Malawi and Zambia for the reflection of IFAD priorities and actions towards the SUN movement initiatives Governments Development Strategies.
Valérie Orsat
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University
Dr. Orsat’s research emphasizes state-of-the-art technologies in the electro-magnetic spectrum dealing with RF and microwaves for the processing/production of functional food ingredients. Dr. Orsat has successfully managed the activities of three international development projects funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and the International Development Research Centre, “Millet processing in India” from 2010-2013; “Consolidation of Food Security in South India” from 2002 to 2007 and “Microwave Assisted Processing in China” from 1997 through 2003. She has made an exceptional contribution with the coordination of a Canada Foundation for Innovation project, “Integrated and Innovative Agri-Food Processing Technologies” in the early 2000’s where her skills in management and technical/scientific input were put to the test with the installation of state-of-the-art equipment. She has supervised the training of many engineers at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as numerous visiting scientists from around the world. She was the recipient of the 2006 NABEC (North-East Agricultural and Biological Engineering Conference) Young Engineer of the Year Award. Dr. Valérie Orsat was the recipient of the 2008 CSBE (Canadian Society for Bioengineering) Young Engineer of the Year Award for her exceptional contribution in the area of agri-food processing and post-harvest technology.
June Yee Tsun Po
PhD Candidate (Natural Resource Sciences), McGill University
June Po is a doctoral candidate at the Sustainable Futures Research Group in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University. She holds a Master of Science in Global Health and Population from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Psychology from the University of British Columbia. Her research grows out of an interest in social-ecological resilience, climate change, and global health. Her current research combines these interests exploring the relationships between gender norms, access to land resources and food security in dryland Kenya under the supervision of Prof. Gordon Hickey. This research is a collaboration with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and is supported by the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF), a program of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) with the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). June has presented various posters and papers at conferences on population, public health, and food security. She was recently awarded a grant from le Recherche en Santé des Populations du Québec to return to her research sites in Kenya, where she will disseminate and discuss her results with rural communities, researchers and stakeholders in November 2015. She hopes that the results from her work will spark further discussions around household food security and gendered attitudes on land resource management for a more sustainable agricultural development.
Vijaya Raghavan
James McGill Professor, Department of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University
Vijaya Raghavan is a James McGill Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering. He joined McGill University in 1974 soon after obtaining his Ph.D. from Colorado State University. In the initial phase of his research career he studied the effects of compaction by agricultural machinery on the structure and productivity of the soil. The results of his research led to recommendations for soil conservation and zero-tillage practices that are still relevant after several decades. Subsequently, Vijaya has turned his attention to postharvest technologies and specifically on the drying and storage of crops and produce. His pioneering work on controlled environment storage technologies focused on the use of membranes and diffusion channels to passively alter storage conditions, thereby controlling the quality and longevity of produce. This innovative research brought him into contact with farmers near Montreal, and lead to the establishment of one of the first large-scale commercial storage facilities in Canada using this technology. Vijaya has also made significant contributions to the development of knowledge and technologies with enhanced heat and mass transfer for the drying and thermal treatment of agri-food produce in industrial and agricultural processes. The various processes developed by him for the use of particulate medium-based heating and drying systems have been put to use for the heat treatment of soybeans and other grains. Presently he is investigating the use of electro-technologies such as microwaves, radio-frequencies, and pulsed electric fields for the heating and processing of produce and grains. He has had the opportunity to share the benefits of his research efforts and expertise with people around the world. He was the director of three major projects funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to provide training and support to Indian and Chinese Universities, and to strengthen their capacity in postharvest technology and food processing by transferring technology and expertise. Also, he has been and is currently participating in developmental activities in parts of Africa, India and South America. Dr. Raghavan has been honored with many awards for his research work and contributions in drying and food processing, for outreach and development activities, for his teaching and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students, and for his contributions to the many professional associations to which he belongs. He is a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, Foreign Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India, Fellow of Canadian Society of Biological Engineers, Fellow of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Fellow of Indian Institute of Engineering and Fellow of ASME.
Valerie Sapin
Academic Associate, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University
Valerie Sapin is a passionate agriculturalist. She has lived in villages in Senegal, Congo, France, Gabon, Vietnam and Australia where she worked as a field extension officer, program manager and or private consultant. She has recently joined McGill University as an Academic Associate with the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, to help develop a new agribusiness and entrepreneurship course and new international project partnerships.
Her interests are in farming systems, innovation, agribusiness and technology. In 2014, she completed an MBA in Technology Strategies, Innovation and Commercialisation.
Valerie’s has worked with subsistence farmers, intensive poultry and pork producers, peanut growers, graziers, cotton, rice and cane producers, dairy farmers and peri-urban vegetable growers. In Australia, where she worked for the last sixteen years, she witnessed the impact of the mining boom on farm labour and farm technology. She saw farmers who like here, relied on migrant workers or back packers to supply multinational food companies. She saw some of them completely change their production systems to minimise their dependency on labour and supermarkets. Others invested in satellite imagery, precision agriculture and telemetry only to become very weary of increasingly scrutinising and intruding government information systems.
In both Vietnam and Northern Australia, she observed how with mechanisation, young people were pushed to the most marginal areas of the country to farm under the most extreme and remote conditions, often on the worst soils. When Valerie moved to Canada she could not help but draw a parallel with the young producers here who cannot access farmland but embrace innovative technologies (and business models) to produce food in very challenging urban environments.
Pierre Tulk
Undergraduate Student, McGill University
Pierre Tulk is an undergraduate student in the Global Food Security and AgroEnvironmental Sciences programs at McGill University. His project, the development of a community garden in the peri-urban area of Pointe-Claire, is coupled with a research project on food security in the island of Montreal. Pierre is also vice-president of the Association des Futurs Agronomes du Québec (AFAQ) and is involved in the Macdonald Student-Run Ecological Gardens (MSEG), a student initiative to promote ecological agriculture and education. His main fields of interests are organic and ecological agriculture, permaculture, plant science and international development.
POSTER SESSION
David Chen
Undergraduate Student, McGill University
David Chen is an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at McGill University, majoring in International Agriculture & Food Systems. He is interested in sustainable agriculture, agricultural development, the effect of climate change on agriculture and land use, and the environmental impacts of food systems. David's current research work includes a case study quantifying the environmental impacts of McGill and Québec food systems, as well as a recent participatory study in the North China Plain on the impacts of climate change on local smallholder farmers.
Diana Dallman
PhD candidate, Dietetics and Human Nutrition, McGill University
Diana Dallmann, a native Argentinian, is currently a PhD student in the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill. In 2014 she received a Master’s degree on Public Health Nutrition from the Catholic University in Paraguay, through a study validating a food security measurement tool in that country. From 2012 to 2014 she worked as a consultant for the Inter American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) in a study assessing food insecurity among smallholder farmers in Paraguay, Dominican Republic and Haiti. In this project Ms. Dallmann developed the survey applied in the study, as well as a training manual and a coding book. She was in charge of training the enumerators for the three countries, co-supervised the data entry, conducted the statistical analyses, and elaborated the final report. Within the FAO project Voices of the Hungry and the McGill Global Food Security Data Lab Ms. Dallmann has collaborated with the data management and analysis. From 2010 to 2012 she worked as the head of the monitoring and evaluation department at the National Institute of Food and Nutrition in Paraguay. Previously, for three years she worked as a dietitian in the Institute for Social Provision. During that time, she taught courses at the undergraduate level in Clinical Nutrition at various universities in Asuncion. In 2007 Ms. Dallmann received a BSc. degree in Nutrition from the National University in Asuncion, Paraguay, elaborating a research thesis on policies regulating public school food services. She has published her work in peer-reviewed journals and has presented in national and international scientific conferences.
Divya Gupta
PhD Candidate, Bioresource Engineering, McGill University
Divya Gupta is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Bioresource Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University. She is a recipient of the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Nature et technologies (FRQNT) scholarship to carry out her Doctoral research. She also received a Graduate Excellency Award and a GREAT Graduate Travel Award from McGill University. She holds a Masters of Science in Water Resources Management from TERI University, New Delhi, India and a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology (Honors) from University of Delhi, India. She was awarded with a Gold Medal from TERI University for outstanding performance in her Masters. Her Master’s thesis was carried out at Yale University, a part of the TERI-Yale collaboration in year 2011 funded by V K Rasmussen Foundation. Her research topic for Masters was ‘Caffeine as a tracer for sewage contamination in freshwater bodies.’ She worked as a Research Associate at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for a year, and was involved in different projects on air and water pollution. She also carried out research on ‘The Microbial Quality of Drain water in IIT campus, Delhi’ with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India. She completed online courses on the ‘Climate Change and Food Security’ and ‘Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance’ from the University of Hawaii, Asia Pacific Initiative (API). She attended a National Workshop on Air Pollution stress and adverse health effects on population of Delhi, organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in collaboration with Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). She holds a Certificate of Social Service and Silver medal by Cancer Aid Society under Nationwide Cancer Control Programme, India. She is a graduate student member of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and was an Undergraduate Poster Session Judge at ASABE Annual Meeting, 2014.
Audrine Makaka
MSc Student (Human Nutrition), McGill University
Audrine Mikhala Makaka is an MSc. candidate for Human Nutrition in McGill University. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from University of Nairobi. Prior to earning a scholarship to study at McGill, Audrine provided research, technical and administrative support at the Nutrition Department of the Kenya Medical Research Institute - Center for public Health Research (KEMRI-CPHR). She was intimately involved in nutritional surveys as well as elaborate laboratory analysis of multiple micronutrients.
Her study seeks to investigate the relationships and determinants of Vitamin A and Iron status in Infants and young children in Machakos and Makueni Counties in Kenya; but keenly focus on understanding how culture and traditional feeding practices affect the malnutrition status between boys and girls. Her project supervisor is Prof. Tim Johns (McGill University) and Co-supervisor Zipporah Bukania (KEMRI-CPHR).
The research study is a collaboration of McGill University, Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KARLO) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI); funded by Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) a program of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD).
June Yee Tsun Po
PhD Candidate (Natural Resource Sciences), McGill University
Pierre Tulk
Undergraduate Student, McGill University
