Nina Fedoroff

About the guest speaker

Nina V. Fedoroff received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Rockefeller University and has served on the faculties of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Johns Hopkins University, the Pennsylvania State University, where she was the Director of the Biotechnology Institute and the founding Director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, and, most recently, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia), where she was the founding Director of the Center for Desert Agriculture.

Fedoroff has published three books and more than 160 papers in scientific journals. She is a member of several academies, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among her awards is a 2006 National Medal of Science, the highest honor awarded to U.S. scientists. She is an Evan Pugh Professor Emerita, Penn State and a member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.

Fedoroff served as the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State and to the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2007 to 2010. She established and serves as Science Adviser to the Global Knowledge Initiative, an organization focused on forging collaborations between scientists in developed and developing countries.  She has served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and as a Trustee of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt.  She is member of the Science Advisory Board of the Santa Fe Institute and serves as Senior Science Advisor to OFW Law, Washington D.C.