POLLY ERICKSEN has been appointed as Program Leader for Livestock Systems and the Environment in the Directorate for Integrated Sciences with effect from 19 September 2013. Polly holds degrees in History, Economics and received her PhD Soil Science from the University of Wisconsin. She has over 15 years of post-graduate professional experience, focusing on agricultural development and global environmental change. She has specific expertise in food security, livelihoods, climate risk management, and environmental change. She has worked extensively in Latin America, South Asia and Africa with and for the CGIAR, NGOs, and universities. She has strong professional networks in both the global environmental change and the agricultural development communities. Her most recent work includes three years with the CGIAR Systemwide ASB programme, five years with the Global Environmental Change and Food Systems Programme at Oxford University, and nearly four years at ILRI with the PLE and SLF (now LSE) teams.

ANNA LACASTA-MARIN joined ILRI as a Post-Doctoral Scientist in the Vaccines Platform on 1 October 2013. She recently completed her PhD in Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology from Universitat de Barcelona. Her thesis was titled “New advances in the development of vaccines against African swine fever”. It involved the enhancement of the immune response of pigs against fatal infection through a wide range of different vaccination methods, from DNA to the use of attenuated viruses. All the experimental work was performed in the outstanding BSL-3+ installations of CReSA (Centre of Research in Animal Health), one of the two BSL-3+ in Spain and the most important surveillance center in Europe. Anna has previously worked in the identification of virulence genes in pathogenic Gram negative bacteria in the Department of Microbiology in Universitat de Barcelona. She also is a member of the Spanish Society of Virology since 2010.

NASSER YAO joined ILRI as Post-Doctoral Scientist-Plant Molecular Breeder in the BecA-ILRI Hub on 1 October 2013. Prior to joining ILRI, Nasser was the Principal Rice breeder at CNRA, the Ivorian National Centre for Agricultural Research. Previously, he worked for the Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice) as a Research Fellow, Research Associate and Consultant for the Nested Associated Mapping and the Rice Challenge Initiatives projects. During this period, his work focused on rain-fed lowland and upland rice in aspects related to drought tolerance, anther culture, yield and yield potential, resistance to pest and disease, molecular and agromorphological characterization of germplasm, populations’ development and quality seed production. He holds a PhD degree in Genetics and Molecular Plant Breeding from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He majored in Genetics and Genetics & Plant Breeding respectively during BSc and MSc at the University Félix Houphouet-Boigny of Abidjan-Cocody, Côte d’Ivoire.

BETH CULLEN was appointed Scientist Livelihoods and Multi-stakeholder Processes for the Livelihoods Gender, Impact and Innovation department on 1 October 2013. She joined ILRI as a postdoctoral researcher in September 2011 and is an applied anthropologist specializing in participatory methods for research and development. Beth has worked in Ethiopia since 2005 and during this time has lived and worked with pastoralist and farming communities in a variety of agro-ecological systems. Her postdoctoral work has focused on developing approaches that enable members of farming communities, as well as other stakeholders, to become active participants in research processes. Her work has involved the use of participatory communication tools, participatory planning and modeling tools, and innovation platforms. She is particularly interested in researching the interactions between local and scientific knowledge, the politics of participation and sustainability issues. Beth has an MA in Research Methods for Anthropology and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Durham, UK, funded by an ESRC scholarship award.

TONY BRENTON-RULE joined ILRI as Head of Business Development in the Institutional Planning and Partnerships Directorate on 7 October 2013. Tony is from New Zealand, where he has been most recently working, following some years living and working internationally.  His career has had three stages, all of which are pertinent to ILRI:  agriculture in lesser-developed countries; the establishment and operation of new businesses in research-based technologies, and working on financing and policy at the interface between research institutes, the business sector and government.  He is a past President of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science, NZ Society for Horticultural Science and Director of three national biotechnology organizations.  His research and business applications have extended from livestock vaccines to the design and manufacture of optics and instrumentation for astronomical research. He is a great fan of the Kenya Rugby Sevens team.

SABINE DOUXCHAMPS joined ILRI as a Science Systems Agronomist in the Livestock Systems and the Environment department on 18 October 2013. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow under a joint appointment with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and ILRI in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, working on a CPWF Volta basin project on integrated management of rainwater for crop-livestock agro-ecosystems and involved in CCAFS IMPACTlite household surveys in West Africa. Sabine is a soil scientist by training and she conducted her PhD thesis in the Group of Plant Nutrition at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland, in collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The overall project aimed at assessing the biophysical and socioeconomic trade-offs of introducing cover crop legumes as forage or as green manure in a smallholder crop-livestock system in Nicaragua.

MOHAMED IBRAHIM has moved to Pakistan as Regional Project Coordinator, (GEF-NEP-ILRI FAnGR Project & Project Manager Livestock Pakistan Agriculture Innovation Program within the Animal Science for Sustainable Productivity (ASSP) team. He was formerly Project Coordinator for Development and Application of Decision-support tools to conserve and use Animal Genetic Divesity in Asia Project, based in Sri Lanka.