Speakers

Moctar TOURE

Place of Birth : Senegal
Position : President of the Senegalese National Academy of Sciences and Technics
Field of study : Soil and Land management, S&T policy formulation and management, S&T Institutional capacity building

Prof. Moctar TOURE is currently President of the Senegalese National Academy of Sciences and Technics and the former Vice President of TWAS. He is the founding member of the African Academy of Sciences. He earned a Ph.D. in soil sciences and has consistently used his energy, talents, and scientific abilities to promote science-based sustainable agriculture development in Africa. He held several leadership positions in several science-based institutions in Senegal and other parts of the world. For more than 32 years, he played a pioneering role in building national and regional scientific institutions across the African continent. In Senegal, he held several positions ranging from field scientist up to Director General of the National Agricultural Research Institute. At regional and international levels, he worked at the World Bank, holding several lead positions, including Executive Secretary of the Special Program for African Research, Lead Specialist for Agriculture and Land Management, and finally Team Leader for Land and Water Resources at the Global Environment Facility. He was instrumental in the establishment of continental and regional agricultural research coordination bodies in West and Central, East Africa, and Southern Africa. He was actively associated with the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and served on a dozen boards of trustees of international agricultural research centers. Since retiring from the World Bank in 2006, he has remained actively engaged in promoting the interface between science, policy, environment, and sustainable development.