The 68-year-old Vilella was a Professor in the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires for 48 years, also serving as Dean and occupying several other positions. He used these roles to champion the potential of the bioeconomy for production development.
Buenos Aires, 15 December 2023 (IICA). The renowned academic and agricultural engineer, Fernando Vilella, who has been designated as Bioeconomy Secretary of the Nation under the administration of Argentina’s new President Javier Milei was bestowed with the title of “IICA Chair in Bioeconomy” for his extensive academic track record and substantial contributions in this area.
He was conferred with the title by the Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, in Buenos Aires, in a ceremony at the Presidente Sarmiento auditorium at the University of Belgrano.
Also participating in the event were IICA’s Regional Coordinator for the Southern Region, Gabriel Delgado; the Institute’s Representative in Argentina, Fernando Camargo; the Director of the Agricultural Affairs Committee of the Argentine Council for International Relations and Director Emeritus of IICA, Martín Piñeiro; international bioeconomy and agricultural development expert, Eduardo Trigo; CEO of Grupo Insud and IICA Goodwill Ambassador, Hugo Sigman, in addition to officials from the Bioeconomy Secretariat, experts from agroindustry institutions, agricultural attachés, the diplomatic corps and other specially invited guests.
The 68-year-old Vilella was a Professor in the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires (FAUBA) for 48 years, serving as Dean between 1998 and 2006. He was also the Director of the Agribusiness and Food Program and Professor in charge of the Agribusiness Chair.
During his extensive career he served as Under Secretary of Agricultural Affairs of the Province of Buenos Aires from 2007 to 2008; he established the undergraduate program for Environmental Sciences, Agrifood Management and Organic Plant Production; was a member of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association Board of Directors (IAMA) from 2007 to 2019; and lectured courses or classes in the Agribusiness, Plant Production, Public Health, Agrometeorology master’s programs, all of them at the UBA. He was also a lecturer in the Master’s in Plant Improvement program at the University of Rosario.
Vilella supervised 44 research and consultancy projects and technological scientific cooperation agreements.
The eminent academic sits on the boards of the Argentine Corn and Sorghum Association (MAIZAR), the Institute of Ethics and Quality in Agriculture (ETICAGRO), the Argentine Biofuels and Hydrogen Association and the Pro-Antartica Foundation. He is also the Chair of the Argentine Food Foundation.
On accepting the title, the Bioeconomy Secretary remarked: “This is an immense honor. When I look at those who have also received this title, it makes me feel truly distinguished. It is an extraordinary honor that you have conferred on me and more so as it is coming from such a well-respected and prominent institution as IICA”.
Villela also remarked that, “IICA is playing a critical role in global discussions. Your current leaders have been able to bring about consensus and with this in mind, I am extremely pleased to have been honored with this IICA Chair. It is definitely a high point in my life, and I am profoundly grateful to those who took this decision. I will continue to strive to be worthy of this distinction and to uphold the same values that brought me here”.
On the other hand, the Director General of the specialized agency for agricultural and rural development explained that the recognition of Fernando Vilella is more than deserved and stems from the fact that at IICA “we understand that he is a professional with an enviable track record of striving to build capacities and to make a substantial contribution to the new paradigm surrounding the bioeconomy”.
“Through his position at the University, he has developed conceptual frameworks, new capacities and most of all, as I have always said, to convey the importance of the bioeconomy to the wider public”.
In the same vein, the IICA Director General described the bioeconomy as a new way of understanding “the challenges of development, interconnecting agricultural production with the environment and making use of all natural resources, in particular what is known as biomass, which is the residue of crops harvested in rural areas. The bioeconomy is a way to harness biodiversity to develop new production systems that utilize biotechnology to create a much more differentiated form of agriculture, which can play a truly important role in this new era that is beginning in Argentina”.
The IICA Chair program was created in 2019 with a mission to provide first-class technical cooperation, focusing on generating knowledge to transform agriculture and contribute to rural development in the Americas.
Former recipients of this award are Elizabeth Hodson, Professor Emeritus at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; Rattan Lal, 2020 World Food Prize laureate and Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at the Ohio State University; Roberto Rodrigues, former Minister of Agriculture of Brazil, Coordinator of the Agribusiness Center at Getúlio Vargas Foundation and current Agribusiness Chair at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo; the Agricultural Plant Physiology and Ecology Research Institute (IFEVA) of the School of Agronomy of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina; Professor in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department at the University of California at Berkeley, David Zilberman; Argentinian bioeconomist, Raquel Chan and renowned Mexican researcher in genetic engineering and molecular biology, Gabriela Olmedo.
Although IICA made the decision to recognize Vilella during the first six months of this year, the formal awards ceremony had been postponed on various occasions due to scheduling conflicts.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
