Fernando E. Vega

Fernando received a B.S. degree from the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez, and a Master's and PhD from the University of Maryland in College Park. He retired in 2022 from the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, where he conducted research on the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) and on the use of fungal entomopathogens as fungal endophytes. His scientific publications have been cited over 14,000 times.

Fernando co-organized a scientific conference held in 2008 at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy, entitled "Entomopathogenic fungi in sustainable agriculture: use against insects and beyond". The resulting paper has been cited over 800 times. In 2012, Fernando was recognized by the Board of Directors of the National Coffee Association USA "... for the transformative contributions to the science of coffee agriculture and significant, positive impact on the worldwide coffee community." In 2013, the Senate of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico recognized Fernando "for his outstanding research program related to the coffee berry borer... which has had a very important and positive impact on the coffee industry worldwide and in Puerto Rico." Fernando is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (2008) and of the Royal Entomological Society (2013). In 2013, Fernando received, together with Dr. Soroush Parsa in Colombia, a Gates Foundation "Grand Explorations Challenges" grant to develop a technique to introduce fungal entomopathogens into cassava and beans. One of the resulting papers, a methodological video published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments, has had over 33,000 views.

Fernando has international experience in 30 countries and has been a member of the official United States government delegation to International Coffee Organization (ICO) meetings in London. He has a strong interest in the history of coffee and has published several papers on this topic.