Louise 0. Fresco, Honorary Doctorate from the University of Montpellier

Professor Louise O. Fresco, President, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) Louise O. Fresco combines a distinguished career as a professor in Wageningen and Amsterdam with a longstanding commitment to public policy and development, through programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as extensive teaching activities in Sweden, Belgium, and the United States.

Louise O. Fresco is a member of eight scientific academies and holds three honorary doctorates. For ten years, she served as Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She has served on the boards of directors of companies such as Rabobank and Unilever and is a member of the board of directors of Syngenta and numerous private foundations.

Her book *Hamburgers in Paradise: The Stories Behind the Food We Eat* (Laffont) was a huge success and has been translated into several languages. She has published a total of 13 books, primarily fiction, and writes a column for the Netherlands’ leading newspaper, *NRC*. She has also produced a six-part documentary series on food and development for Dutch television (available on her website). She gave a TED Talk in Palm Springs in 2009.

Louise O. Fresco, President of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) since July 2014, has been actively involved in developing her institution’s relations with the University of Montpellier and, more broadly, with I-SITE MUSE, where she serves as a member of the international strategic advisory board: the MUSE International Advisory Board (MIAB). WUR is, in fact, one of the first universities with which the University of Montpellier signed a framework cooperation agreement as part of the MUSE project. Louise O. Fresco also demonstrated her interest in our university during the launch of MAK’IT Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions, during which she planted one of WUR’s hundred UniversiTREEs in the heart of the University of Montpellier’s Botanical Garden.

The title of Doctor Honoris Causa is one of the most prestigious honors awarded by French universities to recognize “foreign nationals for outstanding contributions to science, literature, or the arts, or to France or the university.”