Pamela Anderson
The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has hired Pamela Anderson as its new director of agricultural development, beginning on January 6.

Anderson, an entomologist, is the director general of the International Potato Center, the Lima, Peru-based root and tuber research institution that is part of the CGIAR Consortium, an organization focused on advancing international agricultural research that has been funded in part by the World Bank.

Anderson is known for her work in agricultural entomology and plant virus epidemiology related to food security and income generation for resource-poor populations and authored numerous publications on these topics, Christopher Elias, the Gates president for global development, said in an email to colleagues announcing the appointment.

She has worked for the International Potato Center, known by its Spanish acronym CIP, since 2002. Before that, she was senior entomologist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia.

She has also been an adviser to the Federation of American Scientists, a research consultant at Harvard University, and a member of the Government of Ireland Hunger Task Force.

Anderson holds a master’s degree in entomology from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree in human ecology ifrom Harvard University, and a doctoral degree in population sciences/vector entomology from the Harvard School of Public Health.