Virtual Seminar: Utilisation of indigenous and indigenised genetic resources for improved food and nutrition value chains

Virtual Seminar by Prof Michael Wolday Bairu

Biography:  

Prof MW Bairu has a PhD in Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology (UKZN), a MSc in Biotechnology (University of KwaZulu-Natal, UKZN) and BSc in Agricultural Plant Sciences (Alemaya University, Ethiopia). In a career spanning over 25 years, Prof Bairu worked across all sectors of employment. He worked for 5 years as Rural Development Practitioner in Ethiopia under the auspices of UNDP for local NGOs called FADEP (Family Development Programme) with a focus on rural women in agriculture, 3 years as Junior Researcher in horticulture for the Eritrean National Agricultural Research Institute, after which he joined the UKZN in 2002 firstly as a postgraduate student and then as a Research Fellow post PhD for a 10yr period.

He then joined the Institute for Commercial Forestry Research (ICFR) tree breeding programme for 5 years where he developed forest molecular genetics laboratories and the associated DNA fingerprinting marker technologies for the commercial black wattle-breeding programme. Since November 2016, he is working with the ARC’s Vegetable, Industrial and Medicinal Plants Research Campus as a Research Team Manager for plant breeding and genetic resources management. Besides the successful professional career, Prof Bairu has a commendable scientific standing with over 48 peer-reviewed publications, 1 book chapter, 7 conference proceedings, 15 international conference contributions, 16 national conferences, 11 lectures as guest speaker, in the past 15 years or so.

He has strong international and national peer recognition and standing with a Google Scholar H-Index of 23 (and i-Index 26) and postgraduate supervision. He is currently managing multi-crop research and farmer support projects with a research team comprising more than 90 employees. Prof Bairu is co-recipient of the GCRF-BBSRC research grant for multidisciplinary research on amaranth (an indigenised vegetable in SA). Prof Bairu is also an affiliate of the NWU in his capacity of an Extraordinary Professor in the Food Security and Safety Focus Area.