Christian Rogers

Biography

For the past 10 years Christian has managed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored programme Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture (ENSA) led from the University of Cambridge linking ten institution around the world focussed on delivering a new generation of more sustainable crops less dependent on fertiliser inputs due to enhanced symbiosis with soil microorganisms. Christian has developed a model of centralised crop engineering platforms spanning construct design and assembly, transformation, genetics, characterisation and field testing. In 2014 he founded a crop engineering consortium including academics, breeders, farmers and industry representatives and now works closely with the BMGF's new organisation Gates Ag One integrating the work of their discovery teams with enhanced field trials, product development and deployment capabilities creating a pathway to impact for small-holder farmers. Christian is Head of Operations for the Crop Science Centre managing the development of platforms and infrastructure with a focus on international partnerships.