2020
Global Institute for Food Security Appoints New Data Management and Analytics Platform Leader
Dr. Marco Pellino
The Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) has appointed Dr. Marco Pellino to lead its new Data Management and Analytics technology platform.
The platform, being established as part of GIFS’ new strategic direction, will enable the development, deployment and application of GIFS’ digital technologies and tools – helping the Institute improve how it manages and uses all its scientific data.
“This new technology platform GIFS is setting up forms part of our strategic approach to expand our scientific capacity,” said GIFS Chief Executive Officer Steven Webb. “The goal is that through expanded capacity, we will support research and development work for GIFS and our stakeholders – helping to enhance digital agriculture, accelerate breeding, increase quality crop yield and build resilience to climate change.”
Pellino’s first role at GIFS was as postdoctoral fellow and lab manager in the Institute’s Seed and Developmental Biology group, where he was responsible for project coordination and lab operations, in addition to providing staff leadership.
“I am pleased to step into this new role at GIFS and I look forward to the exciting opportunity it presents to take our scientific data further,” said Pellino. “Structured data management and analysis, and the clear and integrated policies we will establish through this platform will advance GIFS’ ultimate goal of using and reusing research and development data to enable new scientific technologies and tools that will advance food security.”
Prior to GIFS, Pellino was a researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Germany, focused on evolution and asexual reproduction.
He obtained his BSc and MSc in Food Science and Technology from the department of agriculture in the University of Padua, Italy. He followed that with a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, working at the IPK on the evolution and molecular mechanisms of apomixis in the Genus Ranunculus. He continues to pursue his interest in the sciences, working with postdoctoral fellows at GIFS and in Germany, as well as performing bioinformatics analysis and wet lab work.
Pellino’s new role takes effect immediately.