Dr. Kevin Pixley
Director of Genetics Resources Program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
Kevin Pixley has a BSc in agronomy from Purdue, an MSc in crop physiology from the University of Florida, and a PhD in plant breeding from Iowa State University (1990). Immediately after he began working at CIMMYT as a postdoctoral fellow and later worked as a maize breeder, moving to the center's Harare, Zimbabwe, research station in 1993 and serving as team leader there as of 1997. After 11 years in Africa, he returned to CIMMYT headquarters in Mexico to serve in directing positions in the Global Maize Program. He currently is director of CIMMYT’s Genetic Resources Program and leads the Seeds of Discovery project, which is developing an open-access platform of genomic and phenotypic databases along with informatics tools to facilitate the use of maize and wheat biodiversity in applied research and breeding programs. His accomplishments include the development of disease resistant and nutritionally enhanced maize varieties.