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Fresco: ‘This feels like a homecoming’

Louise Fresco will be the new chair of the executive board of Wageningen UR. She takes over from Aalt Dijkhuizen on 1 July for a term of four years. ‘This is my alma mater; this feels like a homecoming.’
Albert Sikkema

Fresco (61) studied and received her PhD (cum laude) at Wageningen and became professor of Plant Production Systems at the university, going on later to a top job at the world food organization FAO. For the past six years she has been university professor of sustainable development at the University of Amsterdam.

She is looking forward to her new post in Wageningen. ‘This last year I wrote a long book called Hamburgers in Paradise, and I made a six-part documentary about nutrition and sustainable food supplies. Those were big jobs, which I had a lot of freedom to work on, but they are more or less rounded off now. Besides, it was a kind of one woman show in Amsterdam, with little contact with colleagues in my field. I am giving up a bit of my freedom, but I am ready for a new step and I am keen to work with a big group of people on the Wageningen themes at the interface of education, research and innovation.’

Fresco was invited to take on the post. ‘I did not apply. My name came up and people said they had proposed me. Then I was approached about this job. And if it hadn’t been Wageningen, I wouldn’t have done it. The university is coherent in terms of topics dealt with, and I have an overview of most of the subject areas, content-wise. I don’t have that at a more general university. Wageningen is at the heart of what I have already been working on for years, so I feel at ease with the job. It feels like a homecoming.’

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