New Director for Natural Resources Institute at University of Greenwich

The University of Greenwich has appointed Professor Andrew Westby to be Director of its Natural Resources Institute (NRI), a leading agricultural and development research organisation. He will take up his new post on May 1.

A leading world expert on tropical roots and tubers, Andrew Westby is currently Professor of Food Technology and Director of Research & Enterprise at NRI. Having begun his academic career as a food scientist and microbiologist, Andrew joined the Natural Resources Institute as a research scientist in 1987 and has gone on to lead its entire research portfolio and the work of 60 specialist staff. His pioneering work promoting food security in the developing world played an important part in helping NRI to win a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher & Further Education in 2000. Under his management, NRI researchers working to eradicate tsetse fly were shortlisted for the Times Higher Education Research Project of the Year in 2007. He is the current President of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops.

Andrew leads the Cassava: Adding Value for Africa Project, working in collaboration with partners in five African countries. This is a $13.1 million initiative, backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to boost the incomes of 90,000 smallholder farmers by turning their main crop, cassava, into processed flour which can be sold at premium prices.

Baroness Blackstone, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, says: “Andrew has an excellent research record and years of experience in the developing world. I am delighted to have been able to make such a strong appointment to this senior post.”

Andrew Westby says: “How will the growing global population feed itself in the future? That is one of the biggest questions facing the planet. For more than a hundred years, the Natural Resources Institute has been at the forefront of finding answers to that question. Now, in the 21st century, the expertise of NRI is set to play an even more important role in enabling the world to continue to feed the generations to come. I am very excited about this opportunity to lead the organisation through the challenges of the years ahead.”

The Natural Resources Institute carries out scientific and educational work in 80 countries.. Working in partnership with some of the poorest people on the planet, the institute helps them to get enough food, to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to generate enough income from their agricultural resources to emerge from poverty. It has built an extensive network of partnerships in the developing world and collaborates with academic and research institutions, non-governmental organisations and government and aid agencies, including UK Department for International Development, the European Commission and the World Bank.

ENDS