Walter Suza and Lisa Schulte Moore recognized for work to fight hunger, make agriculture more resilient
Ames, IA (October 3, 2024) – Walter Suza and Lisa Schulte Moore have been named Top Agri-Food Pioneers by the World Food Prize Foundation.
The two Iowa State University faculty are among 38 global innovators selected for their transformative food systems work in recognition of the World Food Prize Foundation’s 38th anniversary.
These TAP trailblazers driving change in agriculture and global food security form the first TAP cohort, according to the World Food Prize Foundation. The TAP awardees will be recognized at the 2024 Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines, Oct. 29-31.
Walter Suza
“This is an opportunity to say to many colleagues, we are together delivering important knowledge to the world,” says Suza, Iowa State’s George Washington Carver Endowed Chair, about being named a TAP Fellow.
Suza was selected as an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Faculty Fellow at Iowa State in 2023 for his efforts to make plant genetics educational materials more engaging and accessible for students on campus and around the world. This has included leading the Plant Breeding Education for Africa Program to increase access to open educational resources for African plant breeders in collaboration with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, Makerere University in Uganda and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Now the project has reached thousands of students in 18 countries in Africa and over 100 countries worldwide. Funding has come primarily from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
His research on plant sterols aims to serve all farmers with healthier food crops that are more resilient to limited water supplies due to the changing climate. He also teaches crop physiology and genetics to agronomy students.
Suza worked for the World Food Program in Angola and UNICEF in Zimbabwe in the 1990s, coordinating food aid to households affected by civil war and drought. "It became apparent to me that limited access to education contributed to food insecurity,” he said.
“During that time, a little girl exchanged a smile with me as she was eating porridge that UNICEF provided, and it changed my life,” he says. “Ever since, I have focused on educating the next generation of leaders who can play a greater role in ending hunger in the world."
Suza earned his bachelor's degree in agriculture and natural resources from Africa University in Zimbabwe, a master's degree in agriculture with an emphasis in soil science from Murray State University in Kentucky and his doctorate in agronomy with an emphasis in plant molecular biology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Lisa Schulte Moore
“It’s amazing and humbling to be recognized among these international food system change-makers, along with Walter Suza,” says Schulte Moore, a professor of natural resource ecology and management, who is director of C-CHANGE, the Consortium for Cultivating Human And Naturally reGenerative Enterprises and co-director of the Bioeconomy Institute at Iowa State.
Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2021, Schulte Moore is known for research and applied work with transdisciplinary teams to integrate ecological principles into agricultural practices to enhance landscape productivity and environmental health.
One of her achievements has been co-leading the creation of the Science-Based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips, known as the STRIPS program. This effort resulted in a new USDA-supported conservation practice where landowners strategically replace portions of crop fields with strips of native perennial prairie vegetation to address soil health, improve water quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support ecological diversity.
“I am fortunate to work with many smart and dedicated people from different walks of life to find solutions to tough problems at the intersection of agriculture and our environment,” Schulte Moore says. “We all need to eat. We also need fertile soils, clean water, abundant wildlife and places of wonder. I want to support people across agricultural supply chains, especially farmers, with science and innovation to meet these multiple goals simultaneously.”
Schulte Moore has been on the faculty at Iowa State since 2003. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a master’s in biology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and a doctorate in forestry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.