Gordon Conway
{{Short description|British ecologist (1938–2023)}}
{{for|the costume designer and illustrator|Gordon Conway (costume designer)}}
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{{Infobox scientist
| name = Sir Gordon Conway
| honorific_prefix = Professor
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCMG|FRS|FRGS|FREng}}
| birth_name = Gordon Richard Conway
| image = ARDD6 lo (4178655890).jpg
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1938|07|06}}
| birth_place = Birmingham, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2023|07|30|1938|07|06}}
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| fields = Agricultural Ecology
| workplaces = Imperial College London
University of California, Davis
The Rockefeller Foundation
| alma_mater = Bangor University
Cambridge University
University of the West Indies
University of California, Davis
| thesis_title = A Basic Model of Insect Reproduction and its Implications for Pest Control
| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/302370900
| thesis_year = 1969
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| awards = Fellow of the Royal Society (2004)
KCMG (2005)
Founder's Medal (2017)
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| website = {{URL|www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/g.conway}}
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}}
Sir Gordon Richard Conway (6 July 1938 – 30 July 2023) was a British agricultural ecologist, who served as the president of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Royal Geographical Society. He was latterly Professor of International Development at Imperial College, London and Director of Agriculture for Impact, a grant funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on European support of agricultural development in Africa.
Early life and education
Gordon Richard Conway was born in Birmingham on 6 July 1938.{{cite news |title=Professor Sir Gordon Conway obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/professor-sir-gordon-conway-qz253gc3z |access-date=9 August 2023 |newspaper=The Times |date=9 August 2023}} He was educated at the Bangor University, Cambridge University and the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of California, Davis.
Career
In the early 1960s, working in Sabah, North Borneo, Conway became one of the pioneers of sustainable agriculture and integrated pest management. From 1970 to 1986, he was Professor of Environmental Technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. He then directed the sustainable agriculture program of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London before becoming Representative of the Ford Foundation in New Delhi from 1988 to 1992. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex and Chair of the Institute of Development Studies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mazesgames.com/|title=العاب متاهات|website=Mazesgames.com|access-date=19 September 2023}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ddpsc.org/iltab/cassavanet/cbnv/speakers/Conway.html|title=Dr. Gordon Conway|website=Ddpsc.org|access-date=19 September 2023|archive-date=6 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306104630/http://ddpsc.org/iltab/cassavanet/cbnv/speakers/conway.html|url-status=dead}}[http://www.imperial.ac.uk/P5834.htm] [http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/pdf/GordonConway.pdf Biotechnology and Hunger] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071004233118/http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/pdf/GordonConway.pdf |date=4 October 2007 }} 8 May 2003
Conway was elected the eleventh President of The Rockefeller Foundation in April 1998, a position he held until 2004.{{cite web |url= http://rockefeller100.org/biography/show/sir-gordon-conway |title= 100 Years: The Rockefeller Foundation: Biography: Sir Gordon Conway |publisher= The Rockefeller Archive Center |access-date= 2 April 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140428020643/http://rockefeller100.org/biography/show/sir-gordon-conway |archive-date= 28 April 2014 |url-status= dead }} From 2004 to 2009 he was also President of the Royal Geographical Society.{{Cite web |url=http://www.rgs.org/AboutUs/People/President.htm |title=President |access-date=24 October 2007 |archive-date=9 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109134206/http://www.rgs.org/AboutUs/People/President.htm |url-status=dead }} He took up his appointment as the UK Department for International Development's Chief Scientific Adviser in January 2005, serving until 2009.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/oct/24/gm.food|title=The ideas interview: Gordon Conway|date=24 October 2005|access-date=19 September 2023|newspaper=The Guardian}}[http://www.nerc.ac.uk/publications/planetearth/2006/summer/sum06-conway.pdf Sir Gordon Conway interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927021817/http://www.nerc.ac.uk/publications/planetearth/2006/summer/sum06-conway.pdf |date=27 September 2007 }} Summer 2006[http://www.new-ag.info/06-3/perspect.html Technology adoption: the true measure of success] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928095542/http://www.new-ag.info/06-3/perspect.html |date=28 September 2007 }} 1 May 2006{{Cite web |url=http://www.sussex.ac.uk/biology/profile561.html |title=Prof Gordon Conway |access-date=8 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214062141/http://www.sussex.ac.uk/biology/profile561.html |archive-date=14 December 2007 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.iop.org/activity/business/Business_Affiliates_Network/Events/Forthcoming_Events/page_18846.html|title=Sir Gordon Conway KCMG FRS|website=Iop.org|access-date=19 September 2023}}
Conway later worked at Imperial College London and headed the Bill & Melinda Gates-funded project Agriculture for Impact looking into ways to increase and enhance agricultural development for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was an independent advocacy initiative, and was based at Imperial College London and was supported through the Agriculture for Impact Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.{{Cite web|title=Agriculture for Impact|url=http://www.imperial.ac.uk/a-z-research/agriculture-for-impact/|access-date=11 November 2020|website=Imperial College London|language=en-GB}} According to the organisation's website, the initiative ran until the summer of 2016.{{Cite web|title=Agriculture for Impact About|url=https://ag4impact.org/about/|access-date=11 November 2020|website=ag4impact.org}} Agriculture for Impact also convened the Montpellier Panel, a group of international experts from the fields of agriculture, trade, policy, ecology and global development. He was a Deputy Lieutenant for East Sussex.
Death
Honours and awards
- June 2004 awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}
- 2004: elected a Fellow of the Royal Society{{cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/gordon-conway-11256/|title=Gordon Conway|publisher= Royal Society|access-date= 30 April 2018}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.imperial.ac.uk/college.asp?P=5260 |title=Archived copy |access-date=6 May 2010 |archive-date=13 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613142017/http://www.imperial.ac.uk/college.asp?P=5260 |url-status=dead }}
- 2005: invested Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (KCMG)
- 2005: listed on The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll
- 2008: elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering{{cite web|title=List of Fellows|url=http://www.raeng.org.uk/about-us/people-council-committees/the-fellowship/list-of-fellows|access-date=28 October 2014|archive-date=8 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160608094405/http://www.raeng.org.uk/about-us/people-council-committees/the-fellowship/list-of-fellows|url-status=dead}}
- 2017: awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society{{cite web|url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/179227/professor-sir-gordon-conway-honoured-with/|title=Professor Sir Gordon Conway honoured with top geographical prize|date=8 May 2017 |publisher=Imperial College London|access-date= 30 April 2018}}
Books
He authored:
- Unwelcome Harvest: agriculture and pollution (Earthscan, Island Press) {{ISBN|1-85383-036-4}}
- The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for all in the 21st century (Penguin and University Press, Cornell) {{ISBN|0-8014-8610-6}}{{cite journal|last1=Simmonds|first1=N. W.|author-link=N. W. Simmonds|title=Review of The Doubly Green Revolution by Gordon Conway|journal=Nature|volume=391|issue=6663|year=1998|page=139|issn=0028-0836|doi=10.1038/34337|s2cid=5889833}}
- Islamophobia: a challenge for us all (The Runnymede Trust) {{ISBN|0-902397-98-2}}.
He co-authored:
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20130727021106/http://www.ukcds.org.uk/publication-Science_and_Innovation_for_Development-172.html Science and Innovation for Development] (UK Collaborative on Development Sciences (UKCDS))
- [http://www.canwefeedtheworld.org/ One Billion Hungry: Can we Feed the World?] was published in October 2012.{{cite journal|last1=Stewart|first1=Zachary|last2=Francis|first2=Charles|title=Review of One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World? by Gordon Conway|journal=Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems|volume=37|issue=8|year=2013|pages=964–967|issn=2168-3565|doi=10.1080/21683565.2013.809397|s2cid=155545491}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/c/6834/Gordon+Richard.aspx Prof Sir Gordon Conway, KCMG, DL, FRS] at Debrett's People of Today
- {{cite journal|title=Professor Sir Gordon Conwat - "One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?"|date=15 October 2012|publisher=SciencexMedia at Global Development|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2XYs58OVxg |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/O2XYs58OVxg |archive-date=21 December 2021 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}
- {{cite web|title=Sir Gordon Conwat: Feeding the World: Is Sustainable Intensification the Answer?|date=10 September 2014|publisher=SAIS events|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luvmPZD-sxk}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}}
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Category:Alumni of Bangor University
Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Category:University of California, Davis alumni
Category:British agriculturalists
Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:People associated with the University of Sussex
Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Category:Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society
Category:Deputy lieutenants of East Sussex
Category:Presidents of the Rockefeller Foundation
Category:Recipients of the Royal Geographical Society Founder's Medal