Smashing all barriers to the global Helm

.The first African to receive the Dan forth Center Science

 Honoree recognition

 As a journalist who throws your full weight behind taking your newspaper to a new height of wider readership you scout for society lions that challenged their limits as big names make big news or big columns.

No doubt your satisfaction will be double fold if your work garners a feedback like the following “I never thought there could be such a brilliant Ethiopian, male or female, in Ethiopia or anywhere in the world! Dr. Segenet Kelemu is a genius worthy of a noble prize in Science!”

Your contentment will defy description if you know this remark is by one of the renowned columnist that peruses the paper from A to Z on Sunday morning when the paper gets into circulation. Needless to mention this remark will placate your irk you at times experience for getting SMs message “The Herald has failed to come out on schedule again!”

Such a thing irritates you for they occur for some lame technical reasons and recklessness.

Flipping back to the gist, your face brightens up upon receiving an e-mail news on a new  development the big name— Dr. Segenet Kelemu— you graced your paper with has added a new feather to her cap.

“St Louis, Missouri, USA, 25 – 27 September 2019: Icipe Director General (DG) & CEO, Dr. Segenet Kelemu, has been recognized as the 2019 Science Honoree of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, an institution that aims to improve human condition through plant science.

Each year, the Center acknowledges an exceptional individual who has had  extraordinary impact in agriculture, food nutrition, or human health. Dr. Kelemu was honored for her distinguished career in advancing international agricultural research to deliver impact for African farmers.

Dr. Kelemu is the first African to receive the Danforth Center Science Honoree recognition. She joins a list of previous acclaimed awardees including: Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the World Food Prize, Norman Borlaug: internationally renowned botanist and powerful conservation advocate, Peter Raven (USA); eminent plant biologist and geneticist, Joanne Chory (USA); Sir David Baulcombe, a British plant scientist and geneticist; and Vicki Chandler, noted as one of the foremost geneticists in the world.”

Remarking

“It is a great privilege to receive an award that combines two of my passions: science and agriculture,” noted Dr. Kelemu.

“Much of my scientific career has focused on using molecular tools to address agricultural constraints. In addition, having grown up in rural Ethiopia, I have been continually inspired by the possibility of changing the lives of farmers, moving from a vicious cycle of struggle to a virtuous one of prosperity,” she added.

Dr. Kelemu described icipe as an outstanding institution that strongly epitomizes her ideology of science and agriculture, observing: “While icipe generates high quality, world class knowledge, the Centre’s most authentic strength is the success in transforming livelihoods of numerous end users including farmers.”

The presentation of the 2019 Science Honoree to Dr. Kelemu marked the start of Danforth Center’s 20th Annual Fall Symposium. The DG delivered the inaugural presentation at the event, whose theme was ‘Crop Improvement: Climate Resilience for Nutrition’.

The knowledge that Dr. Segenet has smashed all barriers—penury, gender based discrimination, racism and hard science…– erected on her roads affords you professional contentment for giving her a coverage on your paper previously.

You wish her all the best reflecting it proves the way who wants to follow suit.

The award could provoke your interest to deepen your knowledge about The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe).When you Google you will get the following

“Our mission is to help alleviate poverty, ensure food security, and improve the overall health status of peoples of the tropics, by developing and disseminating management tools and strategies for harmful and useful arthropods, while preserving the natural resource base through research and capacity building. icipe gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the following core donors: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); UK Aid, from the government of the United Kingdom; the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Kenya; and the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. In addition, icipe receives restricted project funding from a range of institutions from across the world, among them, governments, private foundations and United Nations agencies. icipe also benefits from extensive partnerships with research collaborators (including universities and research institutes in Africa and beyond), private sector partners, and communities across Africa.

The Ethiopian Herald Sept 29/2019

 BY ALEM HAILU

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