Deputy Director, Agriculture Development Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation He was Director of the Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, from 2002-2007. Pingali was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as a Foreign Fellow in May 2007. He was the President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) from 2003-2006. He was elected Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association in 2006 and of the International Association of Agricultural Economists in 2009. He was named the “2010 Outstanding Alumnus” of North Carolina State University.