Dr. Simon Gichuki

Biography

"Dr. Simon T. Gichuki was appointed the Head of the KARI Biotechnology Centre and the Biotechnology Coordinator of the Kenya Agricultural Institute (KARI) in 2006. He is currently a senior principal research scientist. He has been the Principal Investigator of various research projects including: East African Collaborative Sweetpotato project; BioCassava Plus project; Virus Resistant Cassava for Africa project and the African Biofortified Sorghum Project. He is currently the regulatory team leader for the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) and the Nitrogen Efficient Maize for Africa (IMAS) projects. He also backstops several biotechnology projects at KARI. Dr. Gichuki has previously worked with the International Potato Centre (CIP) in research, development and promotion of pro-vitamin A rich sweetpotato. Dr. Gichuki has represented KARI at several national and regional biotechnology and biosafety forums including the Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB), Biotechnology Awareness Creation Strategy for Kenya (BioAWARE), AgroBiodiversity program of ASARECA, Bioscience Centre for East and Central Africa Network (BecANET) and the National Biosafety Committee (NBC). He is an active participant in biotechnology policy development at the national and regional levels. He is currently the secretary to the KARI Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC). Dr. Gichuki holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Molecular Breeding, from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Vienna (Austria), an M.Sc. in Agronomy from Oklahoma State University (U.S.A.) and a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the University of Nairobi."

Research Interest

Dr. Gichuki has previously worked with the International Potato Centre (CIP) in research, development and promotion of pro-vitamin A rich sweetpotato.