I am pleased to announce that Dr Allan Liavoga, a national of Kenya, has been appointed Bio-Innovate Deputy Program Manager since 16 January 2012. Dr Liavoga brings rich technical and managerial experiences from his more than 16 years of experience in agricultural biosciences.
Allan Liavoga holds a PhD in food science from Kansas State University, USA. Dr. Liavoga obtained his first degree in Dairy Science and Technology from Egerton University, and his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Food Chemistry from KSU, USA. He has post-doctoral research experience from KSU in analytical chemistry. Dr. Liavoga has also undergone specialized training on food safety aspects of biotechnology as a post-doctoral fellow at Michigan State University.
Before joining Bio-Innovate Program-ILRI, he was a program officer with the African Union – NEPAD Agency African Biosafety Network of Expertise for 3 years. At AU-NEPAD, he was lead technical person on safety of foods derived from GMOs and also coordinated biosafety capacity development activities for Kenya and Uganda. As a biosafety program officer at AU-NEPAD, Dr. Liavoga has trained regulators, scientists and policy makers across the continent on regulatory processes for genetically modified organisms (GMOs). He has also consulted in the development of biosafety guidelines and other technical tools required for regulating GMOs. Before joining AU-NEPAD, Dr. Liavoga worked as a graduate research assistant at the Grain Science and Industry Department of Kansas State University (KSU) for 7 years. He also worked for the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) as a research scientist for 6 years, initially at the National Plant Breeding Research Centre, Njoro as the head of the Cereal Chemistry Department and later at KARI Biotechnology Centre coordinating food safety activities. Dr. Liavoga has published peer reviewed articles on regulating foods derived from agricultural biotechnology in addition to policy briefs communicating biosafety issues for policy makers and decision makers on the continent. He has published additional articles in refereed journals and a book chapter in the field of food science and technology.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Liavoga and wish him all the best in his new position.
Seyoum Leta (PhD)
Bio-Innovate Program Manager
As the festive season ushers in and the year comes to an end, it is with profound appreciation to note that our focus in the year 2011 was on building functional innovation consortia teams responsible for taking bio-science Research for Development (R4D) and innovations to the market.
