Councillor Biographies
Wes Jackson, Co-Founder and President, The Land Institute
Dr. Wes Jackson is co-founder and President of The Land Institute, a geneticist-agronomist and one of the pioneers of sustainable agriculture. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Kansas Wesleyan, a Master of Arts in botany from University of Kansas, and a Ph. D. in genetics from North Carolina State University. He established and served as chair of one of the first US environmental studies programs at California State University-Sacramento and then returned to his native Kansas to found The Land Institute in 1976. He is the author of several books including ‘New Roots for Agriculture’ and ‘Becoming Native to This Place’ and is widely recognized as a leader in the international movement for a more sustainable agriculture. He was a 1990 Pew Conservation Scholar, became a MacArthur Fellow in 1992, and received the Right Livelihood Award in 2000.
