GARCIA LARA, SILVERIO

Professor Silverio García-Lara obtained his PhD in Experimental Biology from the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico, during which he developed a PhD research and study stay at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Subsequently, he performed postdoctoral studies at the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT). Afterward, he was the head of the Entomology Unit at the Global Maize Program of CIMMYT and a visiting scientist at the Global ICARDA-CIMMYT-IITA Maize Program. Since 2008, he has been a Professor, Senior Scientist, and head of the AgroBio Unit at the National School of Science and Technology at Tec de Monterrey (ITESM). He leads and coordinates a National Network in Postharvest with 25 local institutes to apply biotechnology for “Food Loss Reduction.”

Among his main achievements, he has developed, improved, and characterized storage pest-resistant maize and enhanced nutraceutical maize. He has developed several comprehensive technologies to reduce post-harvest problems in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Dr. García-Lara has worked on ways to reduce the amount of food loss in storage, especially corn. His team has also discovered anti-cancer properties in Mexican oregano, and specialty maize focusing on studying bioactive compounds such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, carotenoids, tocopherols, fatty acids, and specific peptides.

Dr. García-Lara has received financial support from agencies such as the FEMSA Foundation, CONACYT, SAGARPA, USDA-USA, CIDA-Canada, CIMMYT, MasAgro, GrainPro, Monsanto, Kellogg's, and ITESM. His work in molecular breeding, postharvest biotechnology, and nutraceutical bio-characterization has been recognized and awarded by several institutions such as the Canadian Foundation for the International Conference on Agricultural Biotechnology (ABIC), The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), AGROBIO Mexico, and the Institute of Nutrition of BIMBO Group. In 2020 he was recognized at the second Latino-American Meeting on Hermetic Storage in Guatemala for testing special plastic bags for grain storage. 2012 he received the Teaching and Research Award from Tec de Monterrey. In 2016 and 2018, he was awarded by ITESM for his research in Sustainable Food Security as one of the Top Ten projects that are changing Mexico.

Dr. García-Lara has been a regular Mexican Academy of Science member since 2014 and a member of the National System of Researchers (SNI) level 3. He has 200 abstracts presented at national and international conferences, more than 110 publications, 12 book chapters, 5 books, 5 patents, and dozens of outreach lectures at various national and international forums.