Initiative: Genetic Innovation Initiatives
Wende Mengesha, an Ethiopian, is a Maize Postdoctoral Fellow. He earned a BSc degree in Agriculture, Plant Science from Alemaya University of Agriculture in 1996, an MSc degree in Plant Breeding / Agriculture from the University of Free State, South Africa in 2003, and a PhD in Plant Breeding from the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa in 2014.
Prior to this appointment, Wende was a maize breeder and breeding / genetics division head at the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research, Bako National Maize Research project from 1997 to 2009. He was also a junior researcher at the Oromia Research Institute from 1996 to 1997.
Morufat Balogun is Tissue Culture Specialist of the Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project based in Ibadan, Nigeria, working on the development of technologies for high ratio propagation of high quality breeder and foundation seed yam. She has a Bachelor of Technology, Pure & Applied Biology, from Ladoke Akintola University if Technology (LAUTECH, 1996), MSc in Crop Protection and Environmental Biology (Genetics), University of Ibadan (1999), and a PhD, Plant Genetics, University of Ibadan (2005).
She is a senior lecturer (geneticist) at the University of Ibadan, since 2009 and visiting scientist at IITA since 2012. She had also served as a fellow for the United Nations University/Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (2000); IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria (2000-2005); Norman E. Borlaug International Science and Technology Fellowship for Women in Science, United States Department of Agriculture (2005).
She is currently mentoring PhD, MSc, and BSc students and a mentor under the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development Programme. She is a member of the Genetics Society of Nigeria and the Society for In vitro Biology and also won grants from the State department, USAID, USDA, and the MacArthur Foundation.
Godfree Chigeza, a Zimbabwean, has joined the IITA Lusaka, Zambia team as Soybean Breeder. He has a PhD in Plant Breeding from the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He received his MPhil in Agricultural Sciences and Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Sciences (Plant Breeding and Biotechnology) at the University of Queensl and, Australia in 2003 and 2000, respectively. He obtained his Graduate Diploma in Seed Technology and BSc in Agricultural Crop Science at the University of Zimbabwe in 1996 and 1993, respectively.
Prior to this appointment, he worked as Breeder Project Lead at MRI Zambia, Syngenta Africa and Middle East (AME) (2014-2015). He was the Projects Team Lead of Maize Breeding at the Agricultural Research Council-Grain Crops Institute, Potchefstroom, South Africa (2012-2014), and worked as a Field Trial and Horticultural Manager at the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) Department of Biology, University of York, UK (2008-2011).
Brigitte Uwimana, a Rw andan national, is a Banana Molecular Breeder. Brigitte was formerly a Research Associate at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherl ands. Prior to this she had worked as a Research Assistant at the Rw anda Agricultural Research Institute (2005-2011) and a Focal Point Technician at ISAR/USAID/ CIAT/Agricultural Technology Development and Transfer Project, Eastern Zone, Rw anda (April– October 2003). Her research experience focused on applying molecular and statistical tools to support breeding in plants.
She obtained her PhD in Plant Breeding (2011) and MSc in Plant Sciences (2007) with specialization in Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources from Wageningen University, the Netherl ands. She received her BSc degree in Agriculture from Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India in 2002.
James Legg is a plant virologist at IITA, with more than 20 years experience of working on plant viruses and their insect vectors.
James graduated in Pure and Applied Biology from St. Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, before completing M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies at the University of Reading. James’ Ph.D. research examined the role of the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci in vectoring cassava mosaic geminiviruses in East Africa. Most of James’ professional career has focused on strengthening underst anding of cassava viruses, and using that improved underst anding to develop and facilitate the promotion of control strategies.
An extensive research portfolio has been developed covering aspects, such as, detection and molecular characterization of cassava viruses; field epidemiology; virus-vector interactions; development and deployment of host plant resistance; field surveillance strategies; vector molecular characterization, vector population dynamics/bionomics; vector-natural enemy interactions, biological control; and cultural approaches for the management of both viruses and their vectors.
James has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and has also contributed extensively to the development of training materials in various media formats, including video.
He has worked closely with a wide range of national and regional research institutions, as well as donor organizations, in developing research for development programs in sub-Saharan Africa. The most recent experience has been with USAID-funded programs and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Great Lakes Cassava Initiative (GLCI).
Rony Swennen obtained his PhD at KU Leuven, Belgium in 1984. After a brief research stay in the Canary Isl ands, Spain, he joined IITA in 1979 as the first scientist at IITA’s High rainfall substation, Onne, Nigeria. There he started plantain research initially focusing on physiology in support of agronomy, and taxonomy. He became Associate Scientist (1982), Research Coordinator (1985), and in 1987 Core Scientist. He initiated and run the plantain breeding program that resulted in black sigatoka-resistant plantain for which IITA was awarded the International King Baudouin Award.
He collected worldwide banana and plantain varieties that laid the basis for the International Transit Centre of banana, Leuven, Belgium. In 1990 he became Senior lecturer at KU Leuven and by 1997 full professor. His Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement hosts the world banana collection, Bioversity International, with collaborations in 103 countries. Cryopreservation techniques were developed for banana and later for another 27 plant species. His group also developed the first transgenic bananas in the early 90s with field tests in two locations.
He is a strong believer in phenotyping and therefore initiated a proteomics and transcriptomics platform. In 1995 he became a member of the Royal Academy, Belgium, and Honorary Research Fellow of Bioversity International. He is a member of the Global Musa Genomics Consortium (since 2002). He was a member of several scientific committees of international conferences on banana and organized two international conferences in Leuven (on Cryopreservation and on Molecular Biology of Bananas). He received several international awards and a chieftancy in Nigeria.
