Julian May is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape and holds the UNESCO Chair in African Food Systems. He is an economist with a PhD in Development Studies.  He has worked on options for poverty reduction including land reform, social grants, information technology and agriculture throughout Africa and in the Indian Ocean Islands.  His current research focuses on food security, childhood deprivation and malnutrition. He has edited 6 books and published over 80 papers in books and academic journals. He has been an associate researcher at Oxford University, the University of Bergen, the University of Manchester and the International Food Policy Research Institute; and a visiting researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Université de Paris and Vrije Universiteit-Amsterdam. He chairs the ‘Science for the Reduction of Poverty and Inequality’ standing committee of the Academy of Science in South Africa (ASSAf) and serves on the ASSAf Council.