Researcher profile

Johannes Engels

Johannes Martinus Marie Engels was born on 11.11.1948 in Helden, The Netherlands. He has the Dutch nationality and currently lives in Italy. He has been trained in genetics, plant breeding and pedagogic and didactics at the Agricultural University of Wageningen between 1967 and 1974. He started his career at the tropical agriculture research institute CATIE, Costa Rica in 1976 as a team member of a GTZ (now GIZ) implemented project on the establishment of a regional plant genetic resources (PGR) programme for Central America. During this period he also initiated his PhD research on taxonomic and genetic aspects of cacao genetic resources and defended his thesis successfully in Wageningen in 1986. From 1981-1987 he was project leader of the BMZ funded and GIZ implemented genebank project in Ethiopia. He was the project leader and was technically responsible for genebank and germplasm management and use of plant genetic resources. In 1988 he joined the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) and coordinated for three years regional activities in South and Southeast Asia, from the base in New Delhi, India. In 1991 he moved to Rome and joined the Regional Programme of IBPGR (later IPGRI and now Bioversity International). In 1993 he assumed the responsibility as Director of the Germplasm Management Unit. In 1998 he was appointed Director of the Genetic Resources Science and Technology Group. In 2006 he stepped down as Director. As the Genetic Resources Management Advisor he accepted more specific responsibilities such as the coordinator of the global cacao genetic resources network (CacaoNet) and coordinator of the virtual European genebank system initiative (AEGIS). He also acted as the Interim Director Commodities for Livelihoods Programme in Montpellier from November 2008 until end of June 2009. From September 2010 until December 2011 he was acting director of the Regional Office for Europe, at the Bioversity International headquarters in Maccarese, Italy. In January 2012 he formally retired from Bioversity and was offered an Honorary Research Fellowship position that is still ongoing. He continued until the end of 2016 as AEGIS Coordinator, on a consultancy basis.