Professor Eucharia Kenya

Professor Eucharia Kenya is a Professor of Biotechnology with expansive international experience and expertise on Biotechnology, Biosafety and Biosecurity issues. She holds a PhD in Applied Entomology and an Advance Master’s degree in Business Administration (Entrepreneurship). She currently serves as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Planning, Administration and Finance) at the University of Embu in Kenya. She previously taught at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, for over 10 years and has supervised over 30 postgraduate students and published several peer reviewed papers. She has attracted substantial grants that have benefited many students in the greater East African Region and fostered collaborative projects and partnerships that have contributed in strengthening capacity in different aspects of biotechnology. She is a very active player in the agricultural biotechnology sector in Kenya and is a founding member of the Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa, a flagship project of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation. Her current research focus area is on biofuel production from different sources such as plants (seeds and algae) and organic wastes, including bioprospecting for bacteria with superior polysaccharide degrading enzymes from diverse ecosystems. She is a member of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences and the founding Chairman of the Transformative Women in Leadership Network, a non-for-profit organization registered in Kenya. On the international scene, she is active in the activities of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and is a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition.