Gordon Conway

Sir Gordon Richard Conway, KCMG, FRS, FRGS, HonFREng^[1] is an agricultural ecologist and former President of the Royal Geographical Society. He is currently Professor of International Development at Imperial College and Director of Agriculture for Impact, a grant funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on European support of agricultural development in Africa.

Education

Conway was educated at the Bangor University, Cambridge University and the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of California, Davis.

Career

In the early 1960s, working in Sabah, North Borneo, he became one of the pioneers of sustainable agriculture and integrated pest management. From 1970 to 1986, he was Professor of Environmental Technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. He then directed the sustainable agriculture program of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London before becoming Representative of the Ford Foundation in New Delhi from 1988 to 1992. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex and Chair of the Institute of Development Studies.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Conway was elected the eleventh President of The Rockefeller Foundation in April 1998,^[7] elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2004 and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2007.

He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in 2005. He is a Deputy Lieutenant for East Sussex. He was recently President of the Royal Geographical Society.

In June 2004 Conway was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University. In the same year he was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society^[8]

In 2008, he was appointed a Honorary Fellow^[9] of the Royal Academy of Engineering.^[10]

Conway took up his appointment as the UK Department for International Development’s Chief Scientific Adviser in January 2005.^{[11][12][13][14][15]}

He was listed on the The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll and was president of the Royal Geographical Society.^[16]

Conway now works at Imperial College London and heads the Bill & Melinda Gates funded project Agriculture for Impact looking into ways to increase and enhance agricultural development for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Books

He has authored Unwelcome Harvest: agriculture and pollution (Earthscan, Island Press) ISBN 1-85383-036-4, recently The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for all in the 21st century (Penguin and University Press, Cornell) ISBN 0-8014-8610-6 ; Islamophobia: a challenge for us all (The Runnymede Trust) ISBN 0-902397-98-2.

He co-authored Science and Innovation for Development (UK Collaborative on Development Sciences (UKCDS)). His most recent book One Billion Hungry: Can we Feed the World? was published in October 2012.

Notes

External links

• Prof Sir Gordon Conway, KCMG, DL, FRS at Debrett's People of Today

Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society 19th century Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich George Murray Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet William Richard Hamilton George Bellas Greenough Roderick Murchison Charles Abbot, 2nd Baron Colchester W. J. Hamilton William Henry Smyth Roderick Murchison Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere Frederick William Beechey Roderick Murchison Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton Roderick Murchison Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet Henry Bartle Frere Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet Rutherford Alcock Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne Richard Strachey Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff Sir Clements Robert Markham 20th century George Taubman Goldie Leonard Darwin George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston Douglas Freshfield Thomas Holdich Francis Younghusband Lawrence Dundas, Earl of Ronaldshay David George Hogarth Charles Close William Goodenough Percy Zachariah Cox Henry Balfour Philip Chetwode, 1st Baron Chetwode George Clark Francis Rodd, 2nd Baron Rennell Harry Lindsay James Wordie James Marshall-Cornwall Roger Nathan, 2nd Baron Nathan Raymond Priestley Dudley Stamp Gilbert Laithwaite Edmund Irving Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton Duncan Cumming John Hunt, Baron Hunt Michael Wise Vivian Fuchs George Bishop Roger Chorley, 2nd Baron Chorley Crispin Tickell George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne 21st century Ronald Urwick Cooke Neil Cossons Gordon Conway Michael Palin Judith Rees