Bernard Vanlauwe is the Deputy Director General for Research for Development of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). He joined the IITA in Kenya in 2012 to lead the Central Africa hub and the Natural Resource Management research area. He obtained his PhD in 1996 in Applied Biological Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and has published over 200 papers in scientific journals and (co-)supervised over 40 PhD students. He is currently leading the Excellence in Agronomy Initiative of the CGIAR. His main research has focused on the development and scaling of Integrated Soil Fertility Management options for smallholder farmers in key farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining IITA, he was the leader of the Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) program of the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Research Area of CIAT (TSBF). He joined CIAT-TSBF in 2001 and led the development, adaptation, and dissemination of the best ISFM options in various agroecological zones in sub-Saharan Africa. In September 2010, he obtained a Visiting Professor position at the Swedish Agricultural University in Uppsala in the Soils and Environment Department. He has also worked at IITA in Nigeria (1991–2000) and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1989–1991), focusing on unraveling the mechanisms underlying nutrient and soil organic matter dynamics in tropical agroecosystems.