Robert Zeigler

Robert S. Zeigler is an American plant pathologist who served as Director General of the International Rice Research Institute, IRRI, from 2005 to 2015, its ninth director general. He earned an undergraduate degree in biological sciences from the University of Illinois, served in the Peace Corps as a science teacher in Mokala, Zaire, and went on to a master's degree in forest ecology from Oregon State University and a doctorate in plant pathology from Cornell University. Before leading IRRI he worked at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia and the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi, served as an IRRI plant pathologist from 1992 to 1998, and then became professor and head of the plant pathology department and director of the Plant Biotechnology Center at Kansas State University. During his decade as director general he guided IRRI through a new strategic plan addressing poverty, human health and environmental sustainability through rice research, and in 2018 he was conferred Thailand's Most Noble Order of the Crown, fifth class, for his contribution to that country's rice sector.