Dr. Cary Fowler is the former U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security. He is Professor Emeritus at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and was previously Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and senior advisor in the CGIAR system. Dr. Fowler is perhaps best known as the “father” of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. In the 1990s he led the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s first assessment of the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources and negotiations for the Global Plan of Action for their conservation and sustainable utilization adopted by 150 countries. He chairs the Steering Committee for the UN-FAO / CGIAR partnership for the “Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils” and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A native Tennessean, Dr. Fowler holds a Ph.D. from Uppsala University in Sweden and honorary doctorates from universities in Canada, Norway, and the U.S. He is the author of several books and many scientific and popular articles. He lives on a farm in Rhinebeck, New York. In 2024 he received the World Food Prize.
