Bernard Vanlauwe (Ph.D.)

R4D Director Central Africa Hub and Natural Resource Management
International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
Leadership team; responsible for the CocoaSoils NORAD-supported project

Bernard Vanlauwe Ph.D. joined IITA in Kenya in March 2012 to lead the Central Africa hub and the Natural Resource Management research area. Prior to this recent appointment, he was the leader of the Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) program of the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility research area of CIAT (TSBF-CIAT). He joined CIAT-TSBF in 2001 and led the development, adaptation, and dissemination of best ISFM options in various agro-ecological zones in sub-Saharan Africa. In September 2010, the obtained a Visiting Professor position at the Swedish Agricultural University in Uppsala in the Soils and Environment Department. Before, he worked at IITA in Nigeria (1991 – 2000) and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1989-1991), focusing on unraveling the mechanisms underlying nutrient and soil organic matter dynamics in tropical agro-ecosystems. In that context, he obtained his PhD in 1996 in Applied Biological Sciences. He has published over 150 papers in scientific journals and over 160 in other forms and has (co-) supervised over 40 PhD and over 60 MSc students.