Dr. Eugene Terry, was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and received his secondary education at the Sierra Leone Grammar School 1951-1955. Dr. Terry is an agricultural research and development specialist who has held leadership positions in universities, and regional and international agricultural research and development agencies in Africa, and globally.
Education – Eugene holds a BSc in Agriculture (1964) and an MSc in Plant Pathology (1966) from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a PhD (1970) in Plant Pathology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. He is the author/co-author of forty-five (45) scientific publications, book chapters, and scholarly articles. Eugene published his memoirs “Footsteps – An African Journey” in 2014.
Professional Career – From 1973 -1984 Eugene served as the Root Crops Pathologist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria, and from 1984-1987 he was Director, International Programs and Training at IITA where he managed a program that provided the functional linkage between all of IITA’s offsite and adaptive research and capacity building for an effective bridge between the Ibadan-based research programs and national programs.
From 1987-1996, Eugene was Director General of the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA – now the CGIAR AfricaRice Centre) where he led the development of a World Class Rice Research Centre in Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire. Under his leadership the centre produced the versatile and highly productive NERICAs (New Rice for Africa) rice varieties.
From 1997-2002 Eugene served as an Advisor at the World Bank, Washington DC, first in the Agricultural Research and Extension Group-ESDAR, and then as Crops Advisor in the Agriculture and Rural Development Department.
In 2002 Eugene was appointed the founding Director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), charged with the establishment of a public/private sector partnership organization for agricultural technology transfer. He retired from that position in 2004, and then served on the AATF Board for Six Years.
Professional Affiliations and Governance Leadership Positions – Eugene has served (in the past) as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) and as a trustee on the boards of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the World Vegetable Centre –AVRDC, Taiwan, and Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), Basel, Switzerland. Eugene has also served as a member of the Independent Steering Committee (ISC) CGIAR – Roots Tubers and Bananas (RTB) Consortium Research Program (CRP), in Lima, Peru. Eugene has served in the recent past as a member of the CGIAR Systems Management Board (CGIAR-SMB) –the governing body of the CGIAR System organization, from which he has since retired.
Eugene is currently the Chair of the Advisory Panel of the Bioscience East and Central Africa (BecA-ILRI Hub), in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana). He serves currently also as a member of the Executive Oversight Committee of the program on Virus Resistance for Cassava in Africa (VIRCA +) at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St Louis, MO, USA. Eugene currently also serves as a Consultant to the Kirkhouse Trust for the Genetic Improvement and Seed Systems development for Beans and Cowpeas in East, Southern, West and Central Africa.
African Agricultural Development Challenges – Interventions – Dr. Terry’s accumulated professional experience in agricultural research management, and agricultural technology generation and transfer, spans a period of Forty-Nine (1970-2019) years. He therefore has developed him keen insights into Africa’s agricultural development challenges, and a focus on appropriate interventions to address these challenges. Eugene’s current consulting activities are conducted through his own Washington DC-based consulting organization – ATECHO and Associates, where he is currently Senior Technical Advisor. The consulting activities are dedicated to removing technical and policy barriers to investment in agricultural development through capacity building for agricultural technology generation and transfer.
Awards and Honors – Rohm and Haas Prize for best performance as an undergraduate in Plant Pathology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 1963; Distinguished Service Award, International Society for Tropical Root Crops-Africa Branch, 1986; Officer de L’Ordre Du Merit Ivoirien, Cote de’Ivoire, 1993; University of Illinois, 2000, Alumni Association Award of Merit, 2000; 2010 Presidential Award Recipient (President, Republic of Mali) for Outstanding Contributions to Rice Research and Development in Africa, Bamako, Mali,2010; 2012 Macdonald College, McGill University, Distinguished Alumni Award, 2012.