IRRI welcomes new research chief

Los Baños, Philippines - The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has appointed Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes as its eighth deputy director general for research. She will assume her duties on 30 March 2016. Jackie brings to IRRI a combination of agricultural research leadership and management expertise, with a career spanning more than three decades in Asia, Africa, and Europe. At IRRI, she will oversee the institute’s global research agenda in plant breeding, genetics, crop and environmental sciences, and the social sciences.

Jackie comes to IRRI from AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, where she served for a decade as deputy director general for research. Before that, she spent more than 10 years at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture IITA) in Nigeria, taking on positions of progressive responsibility throughout her tenure. Jackie was also technical cooperation officer in virology at the Cocoa Research Institute in Ghana and higher scientific officer at the United Kingdom’s Institute of Horticultural Research. Her early career started with work as tropical root and tuber virologist at the Glasshouse Crops Research Institute and research fellow in molecular virology at the University of Birmingham, both in the United Kingdom (UK).

IRRI’s new deputy director general has an extensive publication record in such areas as agricultural science, global nutrition, and climate change. She has held many prestigious board memberships and has been elected to various fellowships, including the Royal Society of Biology. Jackie received her Ph.D. in microbiology/virology and bachelor of science in agricultural botany from the University of Reading, UK. She succeeds Matthew Morell as IRRI’s research chief, who became IRRI's new director general on 19 December 2015.

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