Danny Coyne has spent his working life in tropical agricultural research and development with over 30 years’ in-depth experience of working with a range of important tropical food crops. This includes banana and plantain, cassava, maize, rice, yam, as well as the intensive peri-urban vegetable systems, primarily with smallholder farmers, at both the national program and international research levels. With specialization in plant nematology, his experience extends however, to the microbiome and soil health aspects in general, especially in relation to pest and disease interactions, biologically based control options andregenerative agricultural practices. He has been with IITA since 2001, working across the African continent, although he has been physically based in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and currently in Kenya. Prior to this he was employed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Tanzania, the British Government, GIZ and AfricaRice in a spectrum of roles involving integrated crop protection and pest management. He has led, managed and been involved in a range of diverse projects. Being heavily involved in the nematology network in Africa, as well as beyond, he represents a pivotal position in the nematology world and is key figure in Africa. He jointly leads NemAfrica with Solveig Haukeland, which is a joint IITA-icipe regional nematology unit based at icipe. Training underscores all of his work, whether at the farmer, technician, or academic level, with a multitude of MSc and PhD students having been successfully supervised during his career. He is currently a Visiting Professor, Faculty of Sciences of Ghent University, Belgium on the International MSc course in Nematology.