Molly Jahn

Dr. Molly Jahn is the founding principal of the Jahn Research Group and a professor of agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 2006 to 2011, she was the 12th dean of the University of Wisconsin’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. From 2009 to 2010, she served as deputy and acting USDA undersecretary of research, education, and economics. Trained as a plant geneticist/breeder, crop varieties from her vegetable breeding programs at UW-Madison and Cornell University are now grown commercially and for subsistence on six continents under more than 60 commercial licenses. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and a series of high-impact reports on risk in agriculture and the intersection between food systems and national/global security. Her government and private-sector collaborators include Lloyd’s of London, Thomson Reuters, Cargill, the US Army War College, and the Special Operations Combatant Command. Dr. Jahn has trained dozens of students now working all over the world and has been awarded honorary doctor of science degrees in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She consults globally for business, universities, governments, philanthropic organizations, and international multilateral institutions in agriculture, food security, risk in food systems, life sciences, and environment.