In the early 1960s, working in Sabah, North Borneo, Conway became one of the pioneers of sustainable agriculture and integrated pest management. From 1970 to 1986, he was Professor of Environmental Technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. He then directed the sustainable agriculture program of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London before becoming Representative of the Ford Foundation in New Delhi from 1988 to 1992. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex and Chair of the Institute of Development Studies.[2][3][4][5]
Conway later worked at Imperial College London and headed the Bill & Melinda Gates-funded project Agriculture for Impact looking into ways to increase and enhance agricultural development for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was an independent advocacy initiative, and was based at Imperial College London and was supported through the Agriculture for Impact Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[13] According to the organisation's website, the initiative ran until the summer of 2016.[14] Agriculture for Impact also convened the Montpellier Panel, a group of international experts from the fields of agriculture, trade, policy, ecology and global development. He was a Deputy Lieutenant for East Sussex.
Death
Conway died of blood cancer on 30 July 2023, at the age of 85.[1]
^Stewart, Zachary; Francis, Charles (2013). "Review of One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World? by Gordon Conway". Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. 37 (8): 964–967. doi:10.1080/21683565.2013.809397. ISSN2168-3565. S2CID155545491.