Segenet Kelemu

Segenet Kelemu
Residence Nairobi
Nationality Ethiopian
Alma mater Addis Ababa University
Occupation Plant physiologist
Awards L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science (2014)

Segenet Kelemu is an Ethiopian plant pathologist. She is the Director General of the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi. She won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2014.

Career

Kelemu was born in the village of Finoteselam in northern Ethiopia where she grew up playing football and climbing trees.[1] In her village women had to do agricultural labor. At the age of 15, after witnessing the devastation caused by a plague of locusts, she decided to devote herself to studies. Her father however said she did not need to go to college to be a farmer.[2]

Kelemu was the first woman from her region to attend Addis Ababa University in 1974.[3][1] She gained a degree with honors in plant sciences in 1979. She earned her master's in plant pathology in genetics from Montana State University in 1985. She then attended Kansas State University, earning her Ph.D. in molecular biology and plant pathology in 1989. Her dissertation was titled "Molecular cloning and characterization of an avirulence gene from Xanthomonas campestris pv. oryzae." She went on to research the molecular determinants of pathogenesis at Cornell University from 1989 to 1992. She directed Biosciences eastern and central Africa at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Kelemu was the Vice President for Programmes at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). She returned to Ethiopia in 2007 after working in Cali in Colombia, with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture for 25 years.[4][1]

In 2011 she shared with Zeyaur Khan the award of the World Academy of Sciences in the field of Agricultural Sciences, as she discovered beneficial bacteria and fungal endophytes in grasses of the genus Brachiaria.[5] Kelemu has also received the Friendship Award of the People’s Republic of China due to training many Chinese graduate students.[1]

In 2013, Kelemu became the Director General of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe) in Nairobi.[1] The following year, she won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science. The award cited "her research on how microorganisms living in symbiosis with forage grasses can improve their capacity to resist disease and adapt to environmental and climate change." Her work was said to be providing solutions for ecologically responsible food crop production, especially by local, small-scale farmers.[3] She is a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses around the microorganism that live inside plants.[6]

Personal life

Kelemu is married and has a daughter. They reside in Nairobi. She enjoys reading biographies.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kamencu, Kingwa (30 May 2014). "Dr Kelemu's rise: From climbing trees in rural Ethiopia to excelling in science". The East African. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  2. ↑ Martínez Ron, Antonio (21 March 2014). "La mujer que quiere devolver la hierba a África". Vozpópuli (diario digital) (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  3. 1 2 16th Annual L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science - 2014, Unesco.org, retrieved 4 April 2015
  4. ↑ Ethiopian Scientist Appointed 4th Director General of icipe, ICIPE, retrieved 4 April 2015
  5. ↑ "TWAS Announces 2011 Prize Winners". World Academy of Sciences. 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
  6. ↑ "You Should Know: Segenet Kelemu, Plant Pathologist". Scientific American. 14 June 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
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