Bristol Who’s Who Recognizes Luis Fernando Chaparro, PhD

 
A born leader in Research and Academic Management for Latin America and the Caribbean, Dr. Luis Fernando Chaparro is an expert in the sociology and economics of research and strategic planning. In his current role as Vice Chancellor at Universidad Central in Bogotá, Colombia, he is expected to continue promoting the development and consolidation of a culture of improvement. He upgrades processes and procedures, policies, regulations and academic and administrative guidelines for all students to achieve excellence.
 
Most of his life Dr. Chaparro has worked in research management and in higher education management. After the completion of his PhD in Industrial Sociology from Princeton University in 1973, he held several prominent positions in the field. As Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada from 1981 to 1992, he played a key role in the establishment of the main regional research networks in Latin America, such as the Macroeconomics Research Network, the Andean Crops Research Network, the Marine Biology Research Network and the Biotechnology Research Network. In collaboration with the Ford Foundation, Dr. Chaparro assisted in funding the main social science research groups in Argentina and Chile during the dictatorship years in those countries.
 
One of his most important success stories was with CIEPLAN, where the most important economists of Chile (i.e. Alejandro Foxley, Ricardo French Davies and others) were able to keep social science and economics research alive. When Pinochet was overthrown, CIEPLAN provided several Finance Ministers, Education Ministers and Directors of Planning of the democratic governments that came back to power. It was a wonderful time in Dr. Chaparro’s career.
 
From 1992 to 1995 he was the first Director General of the Colombian Corporation of Agricultural Research (CORPOICA), the largest technological research center of his country. CORPOICA was the child of a major reform of Colombian public institutions, in which the previously existing public research institute (ICA) was transformed into a “Joint Public-Private Venture,” that operates under the regulations of the private sector.  Dr. Chaparro was responsible for the design and implementation of the new research center, including organizing the 23 research stations that form part of CORPOICA, with a total staff of over 2,900 persons. 800 of these were researchers, most of them either with MS or Ph.D. training. CORPOICA generates most of the technology that is used in many agro-industrial production chains in his country. From 1995 to 1998 he was Director General of COLCIENCIAS, which is the Colombian NSF.
 
In the field of international agricultural research, Dr. Chaparro played a key role in the establishment of the Latin American and Caribbean Fund for Agricultural Technological Development (FONTAGRO), becoming the first Chairman of the Board of this regional development institution (1996-1999). He also played a leading role in the establishment of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), a global initiative aimed at facilitating research partnerships and transnational research networks among agricultural research institutions and farmers’ organizations of both developing and developed countries (www.egfar.org ). He was the first Chairman of the Steering Committee of GFAR and became its first Executive Secretary from 1998 to 2003, based at the GFAR Headquarters in Rome, Italy. USAID and other major donors from Europe, Asia and Latin America fund GFAR. The international research networks GFAR supports concentrate on such topics as food security, rural poverty alleviation and global climate change.
 
Dr. Chaparro enjoys public speaking and would like to become a consultant and a mentor. He is an affiliate of the IDRC, the National Science Association of Colombia, and the Academic Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been awarded the Award for International Scientific Collaboration of Argentina (1998), as well as the Award for Scientific Leadership of Colombia (1994 and 2003).
 
When he isn’t hard at work, Dr. Chaparro can be found playing tennis or swimming to keep in good shape, or with his nose in a good book. He lives in Bogota, Colombia.
 
Bristol Who’s Who Member Luis Fernando Chaparro, PhD can be found on the Who’s Who Directory where he is looking forward to networking with you.