Forestry advocate delivers Borlaug lecture April 16

Frances Seymour, a long-time advocate for forest preservation, will deliver the 2013 Borlaug Lecture April 16, 3 p.m., at N.C. State University’s Hunt Library Auditorium. Her speech topic is “Forests for Thought – The Dynamic Politics of Tropical Forests, Food Security and Climate Change.”

The Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Distinguished Lecture on Global Service to Society and Environment is sponsored by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Natural Resources. Norman Borlaug, the lecture’s namesake was “father of the Green Revolution” and the inaugural speaker in the lecture series.

Frances Seymour is currently a senior advisor to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, based in California. The Packard Foundation has a 45-year history of working with partners around the world to improve the lives of children, families and communities, and to restore and protect the planet.

From 2006 to 2012, Seymour served as director general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), an international organization headquartered in Indonesia. She led the development of a new strategy for CIFOR, guided the launch of the CGIAR research program on forests, trees and agroforestry, and contributed to CIFOR publications on forests and climate change.

Prior to joining CIFOR, Seymour was the founding director of the institutions and governance program at the World Resources Institute, and served as director of development assistance policy at World Wildlife Fund, both in Washington, D.C. She also spent five years in Indonesia with the Ford Foundation, where her work focused on community forestry and human rights.

Seymour earned a master’s degree from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to the lecture, Seymour will spend time with faculty and students during her visit to N.C. State.

In conjunction with the lecture, the sponsoring colleges present an N.C. State faculty member with the Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Distinguished Award on Service to Society and Environment.

To read more about the lecture series and associated Borlaug Award, visit the lecture website.