Since August 2003, Emile Frison has been Director General, Bioversity International. He has increased the emphasis of the Center’s work on the use of agricultural biodiversity to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in developing countries by diversifying their livelihoods and improving their nutrition and the sustainability of their productions systems. Most of his career has been in international agricultural research. He obtained an MSc in agricultural sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain and a PhD from the University of Gembloux in Belgium.