Uma Lele
URL: www. umalele.org  umalele1@gmail.com

Uma Lele was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in Applied Economics by Cornell University,
at age 24. She has decades of experience in research, operations, policy analysis, and evaluation.
A significant part of her experience was acquired in developing regions, from a base at the World
Bank, as well as in US universities and other international organizations. Currently she is affiliatedwith the Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi, India. In 2018 she was electedpresident-elect of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) and on August31, 2021, she became its President. The first woman to be elected to this position in IAAE’s 92year history, she was responsible for planning the first, all virtual 31st International Conference ofAgricultural Economists held during August 17 and August 31, 2021.
Her most recent co-authored book, Food for All: International Organizations and theTransformation of Agriculture, was published by Oxford University Press in October 2021. She
served on the Science Advisory Committee of the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021. She has
published extensively on agriculture and rural development, including independent evaluationreports from the World Bank. She has contributed well over 130 book chapters, papers, articles,and other writings on food and agriculture, the environment, public health, science andtechnology, aid and finance, and evaluation in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In 2016, she cochaired an inter-agency Food Security Information Network (FSIN) report with Professor WilliamMasters on Measuring Food and Nutrition Security, and in 2000–2002, she co-chaired (withProfessor Shen Gao Fang of the Chinese Academy of Engineering) the Task Force on Forests andGrasslands in the Development of the West, commissioned by the China Council for International
Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED).
Her honors include: Fellow of India’s National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS);
American Agricultural & Applied Economic Association (AAEA, 1999); a Distinguished
Alumnus of Cornell University (2008); Lifetime Achievement Award of the Indian Society ofAgricultural Economics (ISAE 2017); “Honorary Life Member” of the International Associationof Agricultural Economists (IAAE); B. P. Pal Award (2015–2016) of India’s National Academyof Agricultural Sciences; the M. S. Swaminathan Award of the Trust for the Advancement ofAgricultural Sciences, India (2017); the Clifton Wharton Award (Emerging Markets Program,Cornell University, 2018); Honorary Fellow by the African Association of AgriculturalEconomists in 2019; and an honorary Doctor of Agricultural Sciences at Stellenbosch Universityin South Africa, as “the leading rural development scholar of her generation.”
She has established three Mentorship Programs at the Agricultural & Applied Economic
Association (AAEA) for students from developing countries, and an award for Best Research on
Gender at the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). At the IAEA, she isactively promoting women in the agricultural economics profession and expanding opportunities
for their professional advancement.