Maarten
van Ginkel

Biography

Dr Maarten van Ginkel was born in the Netherlands and has
academic degrees from the Netherlands and the USA in genetics, breeding and
plant pathology. For 20 years he worked for CIMMYT as a wheat breeder, and
for two years as Head of CIMMYT’s Wheat Genetic Resources and pre-
breeding. His work involved the initiation, development and use of novel
genetic diversity in global wheat breeding. He was based in Turkey for three
years working in the Mediterranean region, in Ethiopia for two years working
in eastern, central and southern Africa, and in Mexico at CIMMYT
headquarters, with a global focus. Dr van Ginkel co-developed more than 100
varieties of wheat, mostly for developing countries. He has published more
than 70 articles in international refereed journals on all aspects of wheat genetic
research and more than 230 articles in total. For two years he worked as
Principal Research Scientist for the State Government of Victoria/Australia, in
charge of providing scientific guidance to crop breeders, moving their
programs from conventional breeding to molecularly enhanced breeding. He is
presently Deputy Director General for Research at ICARDA since September.
2007. He oversees four research-for-development Programs: Biodiversity &
Integrated Gene Management, Integrated Water & Land Management,
Diversification and Sustainable Intensification of Production Systems, and
Social, Economic and Policy Research.

Projects