Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez is a medical doctor and graduated from Friedrich-Schiller University (Germany) and the National University of Guatemala. He has a PhD in Science from the same German University and was a Margaret A. Gilliam Faculty Scholar in Global Food Security at the School of Human Nutrition, McGill University in Montreal (Canada). He is an Associate Professor at the McGill Institute for the Study of International Development. He has worked as a researcher in nutrition and public health at the University of California, Davis, and the Mexican Institute of Public Health. He has also served as a food security advisor for governments and NGOs in Latin America, collaborating with international organizations such as the FAO, the World Food Programme, and other development agencies.