Silvia Restrepo

In the last 20 years, Silvia has studied diseases of plants. She started her career studying a fungal infection of beans and a bacterial disease of cassava. Then, after her postdoc at Cornell, she decided to focus on the infamous Late Blight disease, an important constraint to several crops in Colombia. She chose to concentrate her efforts on neglected diseases or crops and with small growers.

Prior to BTI, she worked to make Universidad de los Andes one of South America’s best. She designed policies and practices for reforming systems of research recognition and fostering engaged leadership of all professors so they can better interact with the audiences and communities they work with. She also worked with the Colombian government to build the foundations of a bio-economy in different regions.