WHEAT Independent Steering Committee welcomes two new members

By Katie Lutz/CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (January 27, 2017) – The WHEAT Independent Steering Committee welcomes two new members in 2017, Ximena Lopez and Ron DePauw.

López graduated with a food industry engineering degree from University of Santiago, Chile, and obtained her Master of Science at Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. López worked as a consultant for the Pan-American Health Organization and served as the national representative for the International Cereal Chemists. López has a variety of experiences, in Quality Control and Flour Treatment and Quality Assurance Systems, specialized in cereal fortification in the American Institute of Bread (AIB.) López is the author of over 20 scientific publications and 100 journal articles. Currently, her research is focused on biotechnology and the development of functional food based cereals.

DePauw is an internationally recognized scientist, who has devoted his life to reduce business risk for producers, to meet consumers’ requests for safe and nutritious food, to improve end-use suitability factors and to contribute to an overall betterment of society and farm economy. DePauw has published 228 peer reviewed manuscripts, 10 book chapters with another “in press”, and close to 1000 miscellaneous publications including conference abstracts. He has received numerous awards including the Order of Canada, Saskatchewan Order of Merit, Gold Medal from Professional Institute of Canada which has only been awarded 40 times to someone in the field of science, and an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Saskatchewan.

As part of the Independent Steering Committee, the two will help set WHEAT priorities and implement and review research-for-development. Congratulations and welcome, Ximena and Ron!