Rebecca Nelson is a Professor in the Department of Global Development and the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS).  Her interests relate to food security, participatory research, circular economy and the defense of Nature. She serves as SIPS’ associate director for research. From 2000-2021, she served as Scientific Director for The McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program (now the Collaborative for Resilient Food Systems), a grantmaking program supporting agroecological research in Africa and the Andes. After decades of work on plant disease resistance and mycotoxin management, Rebecca’s laboratory recently pivoted to focus on circular bionutrient economy.  She currently teaches or co-teaches three courses on circular economy, with an emphasis on organic resource management.  Prior to joining the Cornell faculty, Rebecca spent five years working on management of potato late blight at the International Potato Center in Peru (1996-2001) and eight years working on rice disease management at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines (1988-1996).