July 11, 2026 Patrick Webb, the world’s leading expert about nutrition science, food aid, famine and resilience this week began a new step in his lengthy career. Webb just joined Cornell University on July 1, 2026, as the inaugural Executive Director of the new Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment in Cornell’s well-known, large College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). he will the school’s intellectual identity, global visibility, and interdisciplinary academic programs.
He had been the lead nutritionist at USAID until its disappearance a year ago, after having led various key food/nutrition research/learning programs for USAID at Tufts University’s School of Nutrition. This included the breakthrough program, the Food Aid Quality Review. At Tufts, he served as Dean for Academic Affairs at the Friedman School from 2005 to 2014. He also led Tufts’ Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab.
In past periods, he was the lead nutritionist in the U.N.’s largest food aid organization, the World Food Programme, global advisor to a range of UN technical groups, and famine research scholar at the International Food Policy Research Institute. Hunger Notes reviewed one of his books about famine at: https://www.worldhunger.org/famine-in-africa-causes-responses-and-prevention/ He also edited a 2001 book about Women
Farmers:
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(Frankfurt,
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In 2024, he was awarded the Jean-Pierre Habicht Lifetime Achievement in Global Nutrition Research Award by the American Society for Nutrition. This is appropriate in that Habicht spent most of his career as Cornell’s leading global nutritionist. Another winner of that award was Cornell professor Gretel Pelto, who was Habicht’s wife, for whom Hunger Notes published an obituary last year.
Webb has been prolific in bridging gaps between academia, science and practice, working with aid organizations. He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles
Last year Webb spoke about global health on an instagram interview.
More recently, he was interviewed in a Food Tank video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAOBfQhH2rQ . Webb was asked what his work entailed at USAID that most people don’t understand. “USAID was backstopping what governments or civil society were doing on the ground.” “USAID was playing a broker role in rebuilding Tigray… to design a viable plan forward. … So much training went on of institutions and governments. Finally, the ability to measure. one of the reasons we won’t see impact… that’s gone, a hit to science and progress.” He emphasized how the loss of USAID meant the “loss of systems” and “the ability to shape ideas.” He explained how most of what USAID has focused on for most of its history is building up local capacities, such as in ministries of health, agriculture, finance.
