West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) has appointed Professor Jimmy Omoniyi Adegoke as its interim Executive Director. He takes over from Dr. Laurent Sedogo who for the past three years, was the Executive Director of WASCAL.
Prof. Adegoke’s appointment is a six-month
executive management consultancy effective April 1, 2017. He will be the
administrative head of the overall WASCAL organization and report to
the Governing Board. Until this appointment, Prof. Adegoke was the Chair
of the WASCAL Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)
Prof. Jimmy
Adegoke is a climate scientist and tenured Professor at the University
of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) where he served as Chair of the
Department of Geosciences from 2008 to 2010 and currently Director of
the Center for Applied Environmental Research (CAER). He brings on board
rich science management experience and world class expertise in the
fields of international climate science and environmental systems
spanning over 30 years.
He was previously Executive Director of
the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Natural
Resources & Environment (NRE) Division, Pretoria, South Africa from
2010 to 2012, where he also served as the Director of the Applied Centre
for Climate & Earth Systems Science (ACCESS), a Centre of
Excellence (CoE) of the South Africa Department of Science &
Technology (DST) Global Change Grande Challenge (GCGC) programme.
Prof
Adegoke earned a Ph.D. in Geography with specialization in Climate
Science from The Pennsylvania State University, USA. He also holds
degrees from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (BSc) and the University of
Ibadan (MSc), both in Nigeria.
Professor Adegoke maintains
permanent residence in Kansas City where he was, until recently, an
appointee of the Mayor of Kansas City Missouri (KCMO) on the city’s
Environmental Management Commission (EMC). He holds dual citizenship in
Nigeria and the United States of America.
WASCAL is a leading
academic and trans-disciplinary research organization building
graduate-level scientific capacity and serving policy makers in West
Africa with science-based advice on adaptation to climate change impacts
and land use management. It cooperates with many agencies and
universities in the region, providing a knowledge platform of excellence
for its partners. WASCAL is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research (BMBF), Germany and its 10 West African member countries –
Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d‘Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger,
Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.