Molly Jahn

Professor
University of Wisconsin

Dr. Molly Jahn is a plant breeder and plant geneticist who has contributed many widely used vegetable varieties to organic agriculture through her work breeding in and for organic systems. In the 1990s and 2000s, she served as founding director of the Organic Seed Partnership and the Public Seed Initiative at Cornell University before she moved to the University of Wisconsin Madison where she served as Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences from 2006-2011. In 2011, she was appointed Special Advisor to the Chancellor and Provost for Sustainability Sciences at UW Madison. She currently holds a professor appointment in the Department of Agronomy and the Laboratory of Genetics as well as an appointment at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory where she leads a component of a Lab-wide initiative focused on environmental intelligence for global sustainability. Her current work on knowledge systems for sustainability focuses on the role of agriculture and our choices within agricultural and food systems in humanity’s long term sustainable provisioning. She serves on many boards and advisory committees globally including the US National Academies Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Rothamsted Research (UK), the Qatar National Research Foundation Science Board, she chairs the US DOE Oak Ridge National Lab’s Scientific Advisory Committee for the Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorates, and advises philanthropic interests, venture capital, business, celebrity chefs, global organic agriculture organizations, and governments on sustainable agriculture and the science of long term safer space for agriculture and our food systems.