AG BIOTECH EXPERTS

Dr. Florence Wambugu provides expert insights on the technology of agricultural biotechnology, with a focus on food security in Africa and the developing world.
She serves as Executive Director of A Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI), a non-profit foundation with offices in California, Kenya and Johannesburg, South Africa. The vision and mission of the foundation is to alleviate malnutrition, hunger and poverty using biotechnology tools and information to introduce crops and products that increase harvest and generate income through development of sustainable agriculture.

In 2001, Dr. Wambugu published her book, Modifying Africa: How biotechnology can benefit the poor and hungry, a case study from Kenya.
Prior to her work at AHBFI, Dr. Wambugu directed the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications’ African Region Office (ISAAA - AfriCenter) in Nairobi from 1994-2001. She received her Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of Bath in England in 1991, and also completed post-doctoral research in genetic engineering at Monsanto in St. Louis.

A recipient of numerous international research awards and grants, Dr. Wambugu has previously been named American Biography’s Woman of the Year and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute’s Outstanding Scientist of the Year. Dr. Wambugu has also published and presented countless papers on the role of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries as well as the technical advances she has achieved in the laboratory with genetically modified sweet potatoes. Most recently, she has addressed the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Outlook Forum on the future of agricultural biotechnology in world trade, as well as presenting on the topic of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries in Sweden and speaking to audiences at an African agricultural research week in Mozambique. Associated Press writers have followed Dr. Wambugu and her work in numerous articles over the last decade. She resides in Nairobi, Kenya, where she is a parent to three children.