Dr. Walter E. Baethgen

BIOGRAPHY:

Walter E. Baethgen is Senior Research Scientist, Director of the Regional and Sectoral Research program in the IRI of the Columbia Climate School, and served as Acting Director of both, the IRI, and of the Agriculture and Food Security Center at Columbia University. He has established regional programs that aim to improve climate risk assessment and risk management in agriculture, health, water resources, and natural ecosystems. In 2020 he became the Vice-president of the Board of Directors of INIA (Uruguayan National Agricultural Research Institute).

He acted as Distinguished Lead Scholar of the NEXUS Program (Fulbright Foundation) between 2011 and 2013. Before joining the IRI, Baethgen was a Senior Scientist in the Research and Development Division of IFDC (International Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development Center) where he worked mainly in Information and Decision Support Systems for the Agricultural Sector (1987-2003).

Baethgen has been actng as a consultant for the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations (UNDP, UNIDO, FAO, IAEA), and the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation IICA). He has also acted as a consultant to governments and the private sector in several countries throughout Latin America. He was an author in IPCC’s Second, Third and Fourth Assessment Reports and he was a member of the IPCC team that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

He serves or has served as a member of scientific advisory committees of several international organizations including the CGIAR, IAI, IGBP and WMO. He was also reviewer of several international research programs (NOAA, NASA, NSF, IAI, and German, Norwegian and Austrian governments).

Baethgen obtained his PhD and M.Sc. degrees in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and his B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Uruguay. He has over 150 publications to his credit.