Elias Fereres Curriculum vitae#

Elias Fereres is Professor in the School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering, University of Córdoba, Spain, and Researcher at the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture, Scientific Research Council of Spain (IAS-CSIC). He was trained as an agricultural engineer (University of Madrid, 1969; doctoral degree, 1977) and has an MSc degree (Irrigation, 1974) and a Ph. D. (Ecology, 1976) from the University of California, Davis. From 1976 he worked at the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, returning to Spain in 1982. In 1991, he was appointed President of the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC), and in1992 he was promoted to Secretary of State for Universities and Research of the Government of Spain until 1995. First Director of the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (CSIC, Cordoba, Spain; 1996-2000). In 1998, he was appointed member of the Technical Advisory Committee (Science Council) of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR, Washington, DC), until 2003. He has been President of the European Society of Agronomy (2000-2002) and first President (1995-2003) of the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain, of which he is a founding member. He is also a member of the Academia Europaea. He has had substantial international experience working on water, agricultural and environmental issues for national and international agencies such, as the Office of Technology Assessment of the US Congress, USAID, World Bank and several UN agencies, primarily FAO. He has worked with several centres of the CGIAR, including CIMMYT, ICARDA, CIAT and CIP.

His professional area of expertise is centred around water-limited agriculture and the environment,. Current research interests are focused on the relations between water use and food production and the sustainability of water-limited agriculture, and include topics such as crop productivity as affected by water, water management at different scales, agriculture-environment interactions, soil and water conservation, irrigation water management, deficit irrigation strategies for horticultural crops, and efficient use of limited water supplies in drought situations. He has taught graduate and post-graduate courses on crop ecophysiology, water management, agricultural systems, sustainable agriculture, irrigation, and crop ecology and has directed 32 doctoral theses. He has over 170 papers in refereed journals and book chapters. For a recent assessment of the impact of his work see: http://sciencewatch.com/sciencewatch/dr/fmf/2010/10janfmf/10janfmfFere