Profiles of GENES Co-Ordinators
-
Happiness O. OselebeProfile of Happiness Ogba Oselebe PhD
Happiness Ogba Oselebe
Department of Crop Production & Landscape Management,
Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki - NigeriaHappiness Oselebe is a professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics in the Department of Crop Production & Landscape Management, Faculty of Agriculture & Natural Resources Management, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria. She received her B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her research interest is in the development of improved crop varieties that are economically efficient and sustainable, both in quality and yield, especially under limiting environments. Currently, Happiness is exploring the generation of rice hybrids with resistance/tolerance to African Rice Gall Midge, as well as improving identified farmers’ landrace genotype prior to release as new variety. She is collaborating with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) on a funded breeding project for increased yam productivity and quality in West Africa’. She has also worked on ethnobotany of traditional leafy vegetables with some publications to that effect. Happiness has attracted many grants to her university including an ACU gender workshop grant 2017; the “GENES Project” Grant No EACEA/2017 for which she is the African coordinator and the “MoBreed Project” Grant No EACEA/07/2016 (co-coordinator), both funded by the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme of the European Union. She is an AWARD (African Women in Agricultural Research & Development African Women in Agricultural Research & Development) Fellow and also a Norman E. Borlaug Fellow for Women in Science. Happiness pioneered the incorporation of an agribusiness outfit engaged in seed production (EBSU Agribusiness Enterprises Limited) for her university. She also floated her own seed company (Strategic Seeds Nigeria Limited) and both companies are doing well. Happiness has a passion for working with smallholder farmers, building their capacities and enhancing their production and income level and in effect their livelihood. She is happily married with children and her hobbies include sports, reading novels and travelling.
-
Enoch G. Achigan DakoProfile of Enoch G. Achigan Dako, PhD
Enoch G. Achigan Dako, PhD
Laboratory of Genetics, Horticulture and Seed Sciences,
Faculty of Agronomic Sciences,
University of Abomey-Calavi, Republic of BeninEnoch Achigan-Dako is a Benin citizen, Geneticist and Plant Breeder. He is associate professor in Genetics and Plant Breeding and Head of the Laboratory of Genetics, Horticulture and Seed Sciences of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi.
Dr. Achigan Dako graduated in 1999 as agronomist at the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin), received another MSc degree in 2002 at the University of Cocody (Ivory Coast) and in 2008 his PhD degree at the Martin-Luther-University, Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) and the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK, Gatersleben, Germany) with a DAAD scholarship. Before joining the University of Abomey-Calavi in 2010, Enoch Achigan Dako worked for the National Institute of Agricultural Research in Benin (INRAB) from 1999 to 2000 where he was assigned to germplasm conservation and seed ultra-drying technology. He later worked for Bioversity International from 2001 to 2004 as assistant to the regional coordinator of the West and Central Africa office. After his PhD he joined in 2009 the University of Wageningen as scientific editor of the programme Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA). In the same year he became the acting director of the PROTA program in Kenya until 2012.
Enoch currently supervised BSc, MSc and PhD students’ research projects. He focuses on the sustainable use of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) and crop wild relatives (CWR), specifically African horticultural species such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and medicinal plants. He specifically explores how to use wild relatives to improve neglected cultivars with high economic return. Enoch is the winner of the 2008 Vavilov Frankel Fellowship with his project on Citrullus lanatus (Cucurbitaceae). From 2016 to 2020 he is the African coordinator of the European Union funded program on ‘’Enhancing training and research mobility for novel crops breeding in Africa’’ referred to as ‘’MoBreed’’. From 2017 to 2021 he is also a co-coordinator of another European Union project on ‘’Mobility for plant genomics scholars to accelerate climate-smart adaptation options and food security in Africa’’ referred to as ‘’GENES’’. Currently, Enoch is the director of the Mastercard Foundation Scholar Programme for the University of Abomey-Calavi for seven years. He published in English and French more than 60 scientific publications in peer-reviewed international journals.
-
Hermine Bille NgalleProfile of Hermine Bille Ngalle
Hermine Bille Ngalle
Department of Plant Biology
Genetics and Plant Breeding Unit
University of Yaounde 1, CameroonHermine Bille Ngalle is a pure product of the University of Yaounde 1 (Cameroon), where she obtained her Bachelor, Master and PhD degrees. She is also a holder of a Master degree in plant biotechnology from the University of Paris XI, Orsay (France). She has been recruited in the Department of Plant Biology of this Institution since 2000 and practices there as a Senior Lecturer. She teaches various aspects of Genetics in the Bachelor cycle: Formal, Population and Quantitative Genetics. She is involved, at Master's level, in the teachings of Biostatistics, Plant Breeding and Seed Science and Technology. Her research activities focus essentially on the genetic improvement of the oil productivity of palm tree. Her main objective is to define a new improved variety for this speculation. In this field, she has already presented to the scientific community about twenty publications communications and articles (in peer-reviewed international journals). She is the main facilitator of the Genetics and Plant Breeding Unit of her department. However, she supervises Master's students on several speculations of food interest. Since being recruited at the University of Yaoundé I, she has been participating as Assistant Coordinator in the functioning of Seed Industry Professional Master, Seed Technology option. She has coordinated over two academic years (2014-2016), the training of Master students, PAFROID fellows (EU funding)
-
Wosene G. AbtewProfile of Wosene G. Abtew PhD
-
Eric SchranzProfile of Eric Schranz PhD
Eric Schranz PhD
University of Wageningen,
The NetherlandsEric Schranz is the Professor and Chair Holder of Biosystematics Group at the Wageningen University. His research centers on the comparative genomics of ancient polyploidy, and particularly in the plant families Brassicaceae and Cleomaceae. His research team is currently focused on the various modes of gene duplication (polyploidy, tandem and transpositions) and how these duplications contribute to genetic pathway and trait evolution. He is currently involved in several genomic projects of wild relatives of important economic crops including of Brassica, lettuce and tomato.
