2019 Borlaug Field Award Ceremony
Hale Ann Tufan
Dr. Hale Ann Tufan, Principal Investigator of the Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) project, received the 2019 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation. She is recognized for championing the incorporation of gender-supportive activities within the global agricultural research community, working across disciplines to ensure women farmers and scientists are fairly represented in the lab, in the field and at the table.
Though now one of the most powerful voices for gender in agricultural research, Tufan’s career did not start out with that as her focus. Born and raised in Turkey, she went to Colorado State University for her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and chemistry, then returned to Istanbul to earn a master’s in molecular biology and genetics from Bogazici University. After receiving her PhD in biology from John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, she joined the CIMMYT International Winter Wheat Improvement Program in Turkey as an assistant wheat breeder.