Deputy Director
Institute of Bioenergy, Climate and Environment
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
USA

Dr. Luis “Louie” Tupas is the Deputy Director for Bioenergy, Climate, and Environment at the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Louie provides national leadership for global change and climate, bioenergy and bioproducts development, and environmental systems science and management through extramural funding of research, education and extension programs. He represents NIFA, USDA or the US federal government to various science committees, working groups or task forces; works with Cooperative Extension and other extension communities and federally sponsored education and outreach programs; acts as liaison to underrepresented and underserved agriculture stakeholders; engages academic partners in formal and non- formal education activities, and is involved in the development and implementation of strategic plans for global and climate change, and bioenergy and bioproducts development at NIFA, USDA and federal government programs such as the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP).

Louie is the US Scientific Representative to the Scientific Planning Group of the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research, an intergovernmental organization. He is also on this organization’s Steering Committee and Strategic Planning Committee. He is on his second term as Chair of the Scientific Planning Group and Chair of the Capacity Development Committee, managing a portfolio of projects worth $3 Million annually from donor countries. Louie is a member of several US Global Change Research Program Federal Interagency Working Groups focused on Climate Science, Adaptation, Extension and Education. He represents USDA to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, and the US Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. He is a Federal agency reviewer of the 2014 US National Climate Assessment Report, and the International Panel for Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report. He has led or participated in the preparation or review of several climate change strategic plans, reports and white papers for NIFA, USDA and the federal government.

Dr. Tupas received his undergraduate degree in Marine Science in 1982 from the University of the Philippines. After graduation he worked as science research associate and biology instructor at the university. In 1985 he received a graduate fellowship from the Japanese Government to attend the University of Tokyo. He received a Diploma in Japanese Language and Culture in 1986, a Master of Science in Oceanography in 1988, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography in 1991. 

Louie started his professional career as a postdoctoral fellow in 1991 and as a faculty member in 1993 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, working in the areas of marine microbial ecology and biogeochemistry. He began his federal career in 2002 as a Program Director at the US National Science Foundation. In 2004, he joined the USDA Cooperative State, Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) as the first National Program Leader for Global and Climate Change. The 2008 Farm Bill created the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) from CSREES and Louie was selected as the first Division Director for Global Climate Change in 2010 and became Acting Director for Sustainable Bioenergy in 2012. Louie received his Senior Executive Service appointment in February 2014 as a Deputy Director of NIFA.