Randall Ritzema

Randall Ritzema, Ph.D. is senior researcher, engineer and specialist in water resources and agricultural systems, and more broadly, in systems science and quantitative systems approaches to coupled human-environmental systems. His wider research interest is in the integration of agri-food systems, water and land resources, energy systems, ecosystems, and human welfare indicators and decision processes into common analytical frameworks to identify resilient policy, management, and technological ‘solution spaces’, trade-offs, and synergies for complex social-environmental issues. Within that broad scope, he is especially interested in research applications in the developing world that address food insecurity, water insecurity, and poverty while enhancing ecosystem integrity in the face of climate change.

Ritzema has over 20 years of combined experience in international research-for-development (R4D), technical and programmatic leadership, water resources consulting and teaching at the university level. Through a series of postings at three CGIAR research institutes, he was based in Laos, Ethiopia and Vietnam and has conducted research activities in East and West Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, with much of his work focused on upland/mountain environments. He also worked for six years in water resources research and consulting engineering in California and was an Associate Professor in an undergraduate engineering program for two years.

Ritzema holds a Ph.D. in Biological Systems Engineering from the University of California-Davis, following from two M.Sc. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Water Resources) and International Agriculture Development, also from UCD.