Jean Hanson

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  • Jean Hanson's details
    • Country: Ethiopia
    • Region: East Africa
    • University: ILRI
    • Email: J.Hanson@cgiar.org
  • Jean Hanson's presentations
    • Feed and Forage Biosciences Program

  Jean Hanson is a genetic resources specialist with more than 25 years of experience in seed conservation and genebank management, mostly in developing countries. Following her PhD in seed storage for genetic resources conservation in 1975 from the University of Birmingham in the UK, she began her career as a post-doctoral scientist working with the maize germplasm bank at CIMMYT (1976-1978). She worked as a Technical Cooperation Officer for the British Government doing research on the storage of recalcitrant seeds of tropical tree fruits in Indonesia from 1978 to 1983. During 1983 to 1985 she assisted Bioversity International (formerly IPGRI) in their seed conservation activities and visited national programmes in several countries to give advice on seed storage and genebank management. She joined the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, formerly ILCA) in 1986 as genebank manager and from 1989-2010 led the project on forage genetic resources, also acting as Interim Director of Institutional Planning at ILRI from 1996 to 2001. She currently works as a scientific expert with the forage diversity project at ILRI. Current research interests include management of forage genetic resources, morphological and nutritional characterization, seed production, forage adoption and knowledge sharing.