Participants
Ken Giller

Ken Giller
Chair, Plant Production Systems
Wageningen University
Wageningen, Netherlands

Ken Giller UK national, was brought up in the north of England. On completion of his PhD he started work in soil microbiology running research projects on nitrogen fixation by legumes in tropical production systems in India and Colombia. In 1986 he started lecturing at Wye College, University of London where he built up a strong research group on various aspects of soil fertility management in tropical agriculture. Projects involved collaboration with scientists in many countries in East and Southern Africa, Central and South America and South and South-east Asia. He was appointed to a personal chair (professorship) of the University of London in 1996. After focusing his research in Southern Africa for several years, Giller was appointed as Professor of Soil Science at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare in 1998 where he worked until joining Wageningen University, the Netherlands as Chair of Plant Production Systems in September 2001. Giller's current research focuses on using tools of systems analysis combined with interdisciplinary approaches to explore opportunities for sustainable intensification of agriculture in Africa. His chairgroup emphasises research on complex socio-ecological systems coupling the (production) plot to livelihoods to the global scale. He was Chair of the Board of Management of the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme before it became an Institute within CIAT in 2002. He chaired and participated in CCERs at ICRAF and IITA and is currently Chair of the Programme Committee of the CIAT Board of Trustees. Giller has authored or co-authored >150 journal articles, >70 book chapters and three books.