IPGRI is one of the 16 Future Harvest Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Its mandate is to use crop diversity to advance sustainable development. "I firmly believe that although we work with plants, people are the centre of our interests," said Dr Frison, "and we will continue to help them conserve and make use of plant genetic resources to gain a better standard of living."

Dr Frison is currently Director of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP), one of IPGRI's three programmes. He has been responsible for giving added impetus to research on bananas and plantains, the world's fourth most important staple crop. In 1997, he launched the Global Programme for Musa Improvement (PROMUSA), which brought together researchers and growers with an interest in bananas and plantains. In 2002 he launched the Global Consortium on Musa Genomics with 27 members from 14 countries, whose goal is to decode the genetic sequence of the banana and use it to improve the varieties available to smallholder farmers.

Emile Frison is a Belgian national who has spent most of his career in international agricultural research, including 18 years of work related to plant genetic resources. Dr. Frison obtained an MSc in plant pathology from the Catholic University of Louvain and a PhD from the University of Gembloux in Belgium. He worked for six years in Africa and was Development Manager of an agrochemical company in Belgium for three years. He joined IPGRI in 1987 to coordinate research on plant health aspects of international transfers of plant diversity. In 1992, as Regional Director for Europe, he initiated a new phase of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks. In collaboration with FAO, he also launched the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme.

IPGRI is a decentralized organization, with more than 200 staff in some 20 countries and research interests in many more. "That is one of IPGRI's great strengths," said Dr Frison. "In the future the institute will build on its unique way of working to reinforce our existing partnerships and build new ones. For example, IPGRI's work was crucial in securing the adoption of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Now we need to carry on working with national programmes to help them develop the policies they need to implement the Treaty and to make the benefit sharing it envisages a reality." He singled out other areas in which IPGRI would move forward, such as the use of diversity to improve nutrition and health, guidelines, policy and research to help people make sustainable use of forests and their genetic resources, and the increasing use of neglected species to improve peoples' livelihoods.

"The Board is very pleased that Dr Frison has accepted our offer," said Dr Benchaphun Shinawatra Ekasingh of Chiang Mai University in Thailand, chair of IPGRI's Board of Trustees. "He combines continuity with a clear vision for the future of IPGRI."