Cary Fowler

2024 World Food Prize Laureate

Dr. Cary Fowler recently stepped down as the Special Envoy for Global Food Security at the U.S. Department of State. From 2005-2012, he was the Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which provides ongoing support to major crop genebanks. Prior to that, he was Professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and a senior advisor in the CGIAR system. 

Dr. Fowler is perhaps best known as the “father” of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault which holds samples of 1.3 million unique crop varieties. In the 1990s he led the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s initiative to produce the first Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources and the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of PGRFA. He holds a Ph.D. from Uppsala University in Sweden as well as four honorary doctorates.

In 2024, he received the World Food Prize.