Dr. Xuan Vo is a member of the Board of Advisory at MEG LLC. He is also the president (local-term rector) of Nam Cantho University in Vietnam, former president of Tantao University, Angiang University, and vice president of Cantho University. He is the director of the Vietnam-Africa Agricultural Development Company based in Vietnam and serves as Chair of the Board of the Thanh Thanh Cong Sugarcane Research and Development Center where he is a leading dried fruit researcher. Dr. Vo supports applied research on rice production and land-use management. He coordinates the Vietnam Farming Systems Research and Development Network and conducts research and development on rice production in seven African countries. He is the former rector of Angiang University and the former vice-rector of Cantho University.

Xuan previously served on the Board of Trustees at the Rockefeller Foundation, International Rice Research Institute, and International Potato Center.

He has been called “Dr. Rice” because of his work in introducing new, higher-yielding strains of rice to farmers in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. He has written six books on rice production in Asia, and his writings and studies have been presented in numerous scientific journals.

Dr. Vo has won several awards including the D.L. Umali Award (2008) for his work in agricultural development in Southeast Asia and the Nikkei Asia Prize for Regional Growth (2002) for optimizing rice production. He has received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, which is considered the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Dr. Vo obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural chemistry from the University of the Philippines. He has a doctorate in crop science from Kyushu University in Japan.