Hon. Prof. Dr. Ruth K. Oniang’o

Professor Ruth Oniang’o is a Kenyan graduate of Washington State University, Pullman, and University of Nairobi. She has taught in Kenyan universities and is Adjunct at Tufts University, Massachusetts. She is President of Academy of Food Science and Technology. She spearheaded the completion of Kenya’s food and nutrition policy, facilitated the establishment of nutrition departments in Africa and has given a voice to these issues internationally. She served in the Kenyan Parliament; founded Rural Outreach Africa, to serve women smallholder farmers; and founded African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, to highlight African issues. She is Board Chair of Sasakawa Africa Association and Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education, stepping into the shoes of co-founder, the late Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug, who was president of SAA and SAFE. She received the 2014 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) Lifetime Award. She is currently a member of the Board of the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), which has its headquarters near Wallingford, Oxfordshire, in the UK. She is the 2017 joint recipient of the Africa Food Prize. In 2018 she received Honoris Causa (Doctor of Science) at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She is a strong advocate for Nutrition and eradication of hunger and poverty, and women empowerment and youth mentoring in Africa.