July 22, 1999
Pinstrup-Andersen Receives
Honorary Doctorate of Laws
from the University of Aberdeen
in the United Kingdom
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Dr. Per Pinstrup-Andersen, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, D.C., has received an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree from the University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom. Founded in 1495 and located on the east coast of Scotland, the University of Aberdeen is one of the oldest universities in Britain, with a strong international reputation in agricultural sciences and economics.
The degree, which was awarded at a July 5 ceremony at Marischal College, was presented to Dr. Pinstrup-Andersen for the critical role he has played in global food security and poverty eradication, said Kenneth J. Thomson, a professor in the university’s Department of Agriculture.
“The quantum leap in food production in recent decades is largely attributable to productivity increases generated by new and improved technologies resulting from agricultural research,” said Dr. Pinstrup-Andersen at a university seminar held before the award ceremony. “Agricultural research,” he added, “including modern molecular biology-based methods, together with appropriate public policy, is key to future food security for all.”
In his address, Professor Thomson emphasized Dr. Pinstrup-Andersen’s strong sense of mission to help the poor in developing countries. As director general of IFPRI, he added, Dr. Pinstrup-Andersen “has managed to gather together a large group of applied economists of very high standard,” who measure “success by its impact on the nutritional status of those who do not eat enough.” Professor Thomson noted that during Dr. Pinstrup-Andersen’s tenure at IFPRI, the institute’s funding has nearly doubled.
A native of Denmark, Dr. Pinstrup-Andersen is a former director of the Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program and professor of food economics at Cornell University. Before his teaching and research positions at Cornell, he served as an agricultural economist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia and director of the Agro-Economic Division at the International Fertilizer Development Center in the United States. Dr. Pinstrup-Andersen holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark and master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Pinstrup-Andersen also holds honorary doctorates from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and India’s Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. He joined IFPRI as its director general in 1992 and has published widely on important global food and agricultural policy issues.
IFPRI is a Washington, D.C.-based, internationally funded organization established in 1975 to identify and analyze policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world. IFPRI conducts research on ways to achieve sustainable food production and optimize land use, improve food consumption and income levels of the poor, enhance the efficiency of markets and links between agriculture and other sectors of the economy, and improve trade and macroeconomic conditions.
For more information, contact:
Don Lippincott