Megan Sheahan is a Research Support Specialist in Cornell’s Dyson School.
By the time you read this post, around 600 delegates from over 60 countries will have made their way to Ithaca, New York to participate in the 2nd International Conference on Global Food Security, jointly hosted by Cornell and Columbia Universities. The 3+ days are packed with oral and poster presentations, talks by internationally recognized keynote speakers, sessions organized around eleven themes by a similarly spectacular scientific committee, “workshop cafes” where some of the most critical issues surrounding food security will be debated, and more.
Thanks to social media, anyone can learn from and be challenged by the research presented and ideas offered during the conference, not just those who journeyed to upstate New York this week. To help link food security experts around the world with the dialogue unfolding this week, it is with great pleasure that I present to you the Junior Researcher Task Force. This group of 22 competitively selected early-career researchers and professionals is responsible for capturing and distributing via social media the big and recurring conversation topics that evolve under each thematic area at the conference.
Modesta Nnedinso Abugu, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa, Nigeria
James Allen, University of Kentucky
Keiron Audain, University of Zambia
Leah Bevis, Cornell
Jennifer Cisse, Cornell
Michelle Zelli DeFreese, Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellow Program
Cecilia Gonzalez, Control Union
Matthew Graziose, Columbia
Aurelie Harou, Columbia
Laura Husak, International Development Research Centre
Erwin Knippenberg, Cornell
Pinki Mondal, Columbia
Danielle Niedermaier, Peace Corps
Ramadhani Abdallah Noor, Harvard
Risti Permani, University of Adelaide
Anna Savelyeva, Freelance writer
Megan Sheahan, Cornell
Andrea Spray, World Bank
Serena Stein, Princeton
Joanna Upton, Cornell
Lua Wilkinson, Cornell
Sylvia Wood, Columbia and Bioversity International
It’s an impressive bunch, and you’ll want to hear what they have to say. No matter where you are this week, here is how you can follow along:
- Follow and use the dedicated conference hashtag: #gfs2015.
- Subscribe to this Twitter list which includes all 22 task force members.
- Stay tuned on this blog immediately following the conference to read synthesis posts by thematic area. Join our email list or subscribe via RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss any of the content. All posts all tagged here.
If you happen to be at the conference, be sure to attend the final plenary session where task force members will present to the delegates some of their thoughts on what they found most striking about the topic areas they followed throughout the week.
It’s an exciting week to be in Ithaca, but an equally exciting time to be a member of the rich community of researchers and professionals working to advance food security objectives around the world. We hope you’ll find a way to follow and join the near real-time dialogue emanating from the conference this week, particularly as presented by this group of next-generation scientists and professionals.
Update: The summary presentation from the final plenary session can be found here. A summary video of the conference can be found here. Other related blog posts and short written pieces about the conference and experience by JRTF members can be found here, here, here, and here. And a special thanks to our friends at the State of the Planet blog for this great summary of our blog posts.
