Cornell University
Rebecca Nelson is a professor at Cornell University, in the School of Integrative Plant Science (Plant Pathology & Plant-Microbe Biology and Plant Breeding & Genetics Sections) and the Department of Global Development. She serves as the Scientific Director for the McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program, a competitive grants program that funds agricultural research in developing countries. She is also co-chair of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems thematic group of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Her own research pertains to plant pathology, plant breeding and international agriculture, focusing on natural genetic diversity for quantitative disease resistance in maize and with particular interest in mycotoxin management in Africa and South Asia. She serves as an Increasing Food Security working group leader at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship from 1998 to 2003.
