Segenet Kelemu

Segenet Kelemu is an Ethiopian plant pathologist. She is the Director General of the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi. She won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2014.

Career

Kelemu was the first woman from her region to attend Addis Ababa University in 1974. She gained a degree with honors in plant sciences in 1979. She earned her master's in plant pathology in genetics from Montana State University in 1985. She then attended Kansas State University, earning her Ph.D. in molecular biology and plant pathology in 1989. Her dissertation was titled "Molecular cloning and characterization of an avirulence gene from Xanthomonas campestris pv. oryzae." She went on to research the molecular determinants of pathogenesis at Cornell University from 1989 to 1992. She directed Biosciences eastern and central Africa at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Kelemu was the Vice President for Programmes at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). She returned to Ethiopia after working in Cali in Colombia.

Kelemu was the Director General of the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi when she won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2014. The award cited "her research on how microorganisms living in symbiosis with forage grasses can improve their capacity to resist disease and adapt to environmental and climate change. Her work was said to be providing solutions for ecologically responsible food crop production, especially by local, small-scale farmers."