Innovations Talk with Olcay Ünver- Feeding the World in a Changing Environment

Feeding the World in a Changing Environment

Dr. Ünver will discuss the complexities of feeding a world that is eating more, eating more often, and has a diminishing natural resource base from which to draw. This is in an environment that faces a changing climate and a growing population. Still, the international community has tools that can be mobilized to address this historic challenge while preserving the ecosystems on which all life on the planet depends.

Bio:

Dr. Olcay Ünver, Deputy Director of Land and Water Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, is responsible for managing water, land and soil-related activities and programs at FAO, mainstreaming water across the various sectors and disciplines, and cooperating with partners and stakeholders within and outside the UN system.

Before joining FAO, Olcay was the coordinator of the UN World Water Assessment Programme and the director of the UNESCO Programme Office on Global Water Assessment. Prior positions include a professorship with Kent State University, Ohio, where he founded the Euphrates-Tigris Initiative for Cooperation between Iraq, Syria and Turkey. While he was president of the Southeastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration in Turkey, Olcay transformed a large infrastructure project into a sustainable socioeconomic development program. In 1999, Time Magazine listed him among 19 “European Visionaries”.

Olcay holds a PhD in civil engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and master's and bachelor's degrees in civil engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

Light snacks will be served