COLLEGE STATION — Dr. Leonardo Lombardini, an associate professor in the horticultural sciences department of Texas A&M University in College Station, has recently joined World Coffee Research as its deputy director.
Lombardini began his new position Jan. 1.
World Coffee Research is a nonprofit, collaborative research and development program of the global coffee industry. Its mission, states program materials, is “to grow, protect, and enhance supplies of quality coffee while improving the livelihoods of the families who produce it.”
According to Dr. Timothy Schilling, its executive director, World Coffee Research is funded and driven by the global coffee industry, guided by producers, executed by coffee scientists worldwide and managed by the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture of the Texas A&M University System.
“We’re excited that Leo has accepted the position of deputy director,” Schilling said. “He brings a set of experiences and skills that will allow WCR to extract the best and most advanced scientific resources from Texas A&M and other land-grant universities, plus integrate these into an applied, practical strategy to increase global Arabica coffee productivity and quality.”
Schilling said Lombardini’s organizational and personal skills will allow the program to more easily transfer the results of its research into practical, useful knowledge and practices that can be adopted and employed by coffee producers throughout the world.
Lombardini, who was born and raised in Italy, received his laurea in forestry from the Università degli Studi di Firenze. He earned his Ph.D. in horticulture from Michigan State University.
From 1999 until 2002, Lombardini held a postdoctoral position at the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee. In 2002, he joined the horticultural sciences department of Texas A&M, where his primary research focus has been plant physiology, especially in relation to gas exchange and environmental stress.
Lombardini has conducted research and published several refereed publications relating to plant physiology, feeder insect effects on photosynthesis and the consequences of foliar zinc application on leaf anatomy. He also has published on the effects of canopy management on yield and crop quality, variation in anatomical characteristics in leaves and the consequences of nitrogen fertilization on root development and activity.
He has conducted research on several plant species, ranging from pecan and apple to rose and live oak, along with investigating the nutritional aspects of pecans in relation to human health.
“I have always been an enthusiastic coffee drinker, but when I began to teach international horticulture, my interest in coffee as a plant and as a livelihood for millions of people around the world increased greatly,” Lombardini said.
Lombardini currently teaches a class that examines the origin of many horticultural commodities throughout the world, as well as the social, political and economic aspects of their cultivation and the issues associated with their international trade.
He said his horticultural interest in coffee was reinforced by research projects in which he was involved in Guatemala and Costa Rica, in collaboration with the Borlaug Institute and the Agriculture in Guatemala: Technology, Education, and Commercialization program.
“We received funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enabled us to have Texas A&M students reach out to developing countries in Central America,” Lombardini said. “I served as a supervisor and mentor to these students, who went to schools in Guatemala and Costa Rica to teach youth about plants and the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables.”
He said he hopes his background in research and horticulture will allow World Coffee Research to provide useful direction and advice for the world coffee industry.
“I hope to help WCR provide good short- and long-term advice and counsel to the coffee industry, as well as help direct efforts that are practical and can be quickly applied by those in coffee growing areas of the world,” he said. “This is a fast-paced job in which I hope to provide my impressions of what is possible to the industry and to work with the Technical Advisory Committee to make recommendations that will benefit the industry as a whole.”
For more information on World Coffee Research, go to http://worldcoffeeresearch.org/.
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