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A bequest from the Bentley family

C. Fred Bentley was a graduate of the University of Alberta and the University of Minnesota. He enjoyed a distinguished career of teaching and research in soil science. He was among the first generation of Canadian scientists to offer their scientific knowledge and skills to the developing regions of the world. Dr Bentley undertook assignments in China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and more than a dozen African countries. He was an advisor to the External Aid Office (which later became the Canadian International Development Agency, now Global Affairs Canada) and was a member of the founding Board of IDRC.

Recognitions of his contributions to scientific citizenship included Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Board of Soil Research and Management and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics. His many honours include receipt of the Order of Canada and induction into the Alberta Order of Excellence.

Thanks to a bequest from Dr Bentley and his wife, Helen S. Bentley, the Bentley Cropping Systems Fellowship was established in 1999 and managed by IDRC.

As of 2016, and every two years, IDRC offers the renamed Bentley Research Fellowship to one of the top candidates identified through the IDRC Doctoral Research Award (IDRA) Call and working on issues related to agriculture and environment, which has been changed to Climate resilience and sustainable food systems in 2020. For information on the Call, please visit the funding page.

Dr Bentley passed away April 12, 2008.

The 2016 Bentley Research Fellowship was awarded to Sarah Allen, PhD candidate in Geography at York University. The Fellowship supported her research entitled: Urban Water Scarcity in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam: An Urban Political Ecology Analysis of Urbanization and Water Security in Can Tho.

The 2018 Bentley Research Fellowship was awarded to Isha Berry, PhD candidate in Epidemiology at University of Toronto. The Fellowship supports her research entitled: Live Poultry Exposure in Urban Bangladesh: Evaluating Poultry Purchasing and Contact Patterns to identify Avenues of Avian Influenza Transmission in the General Urban Population.