Joachim von Braun has been director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) since 2002. He guides and oversees the Institute's efforts to provide research-based sustainable solutions for ending hunger and malnutrition. Under his leadership, IFPRI has continued to grow in food policy related strategy and governance, technology policy, markets, and health nutrition policy, and has significantly expanded its teams based in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in response to research challenges and partners' needs.

Before coming to IFPRI, von Braun was director of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and professor of Economics and Technological Change at the University of Bonn. He was also professor of Food Economics and Policy at Kiel University, Germany. He received his doctoral degree in agricultural economics from the University of Goettingen, Germany in 1978.

IFPRI is a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Within the CGIAR, von Braun has helped to organize the creation of a Global Food and Agriculture University, and chairs a platform on agriculture and health.

von Braun serves on the boards of several academic journals, as well as on the international advisory boards of a number of research and policy organizations. From 2000 to 2003 he was president of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a member of the Academy of Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and a member of the international advisory board of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS). He received an Honorary Doctoral Degree from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim in Germany.

He has published research on international development economics topics, including science and technology; on policy issues relating to trade and aid, famine, health, and nutrition; and on a wide range of agricultural economics research issues. von Braun has worked in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, Egypt, Russia, and China.

For further details see the CV of Joachim von Braun (PDF file - 137K).