Dr. Hans-Joachim Braun, a native of Germany with background in wheat breeding based in Mexico, has led CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program from 2004 and in addition the CRP WHEAT Program of the CGIAR since 2014. Responsible for technical direction and implementation of the program, he leads and manages 40 internationally recruited scientists, who develop wheat germplasm that is distributed to around 200 cooperators in more than 100 countries. Varieties derived from CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program are grown on 60 million or half of the wheat area in developing countries.Dr. Hans Braun lived from 1985 to 2005 in Turkey, leading the Turkey CIMMYT ICARDA International Winter Wheat Improvement Program. He contributed to the development of more than 40 winter wheat varieties released mainly in West and Central Asia, which are grown on more than 2.5 million ha.Dr. Braun was instrumental in recognizing Zn deficiency and soil borne diseases as a major constraint for winter wheat production in the dryland areas of West Asia. In his 37 years with CIMMYT, he became familiar with all major wheat based cropping systems in the developing and developed world.
Dr. Braun has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and received various awards, including the Friendship Award of China for his contribution to develop disease resistant wheat lines for Gansu province, the Crop Science of America Fellowship award and the International Agronomy Award of the American Society of Agronomy. Dr. Braun received his Ph.D. from the University of Hohenheim, Germany in 1983.
In view of his immense contribution to the wheat research, Dr. Braun was conferred with the VS Mathur Memorial Award by the Society for Advancement of Wheat and Barley Research, India for the year 2020.