Dr. Mannava Sivakumar obtained his B.Sc (Agriculture) and his M.Sc  (Agronomy) in India and his Ph.D in Agricultural Climatology from the Iowa State University (USA).  Dr Sivakumar has over 40 years of international experience in the area of Agroclimatology, having served in the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for 20 years in India (1977-83) and in West Africa (1984-96) and in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for 20 years as the Chief of the Agricultural Meteorology Division (1996 to   2008); Director of the Climate Prediction and Adaptation Branch (2008-2012); Senior Consultant (2012-2015) and Acting Secretary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2016).   Dr Sivakumar has over 300 publications to his credit, including 54 books and 87 articles in various international journals.  In recognition of his international contributions, Dr Sivakumar was elected as a Fellow of several  international scientific societies including the the National Environmental Science Academy of India, the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences of Belgium, the Academy of Georgofili of Italy and Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Biodiversity Science.  He received the 2007 International Service in Agronomy Award from the American Society of Agronomy and the Life Time Achievement  Award from the Association for the Advancement of Biodiversity Sciences in 2015.