Our Team

JR Biotek Foundation is a United States non-profit (501c3) organisation.

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2022, JR Biotek Foundation | designed with by maxobiz

2022, JR Biotek Foundation

designed with by maxobiz

Carol Ibe

Dr Carol N. Ibe is Founder and President of the JR Biotek Foundation. Originally from Nigeria, Carol understands the urgent need to develop the right capacity to advance bioscience education, research, and innovation to eradicate hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty in Africa. This led her to set up the JR Biotek Foundation - to provide Africa-based agricultural researchers with the right skillset and opportunities to improve widely consumed crop varieties in African countries, and to foster links between the lab and market to support smallholder farmers in the region. Carol received her PhD in Plant Sciences (as a Gates Scholar) from the University of Cambridge and completed her postdoctoral research at the renowned John Innes Centre in the UK. Carol's unwavering dedication and passion to improve the lives of others through her research and Foundation’s work has led to numerous awards including the University of Cambridge Society for the Application of Research Awards (CSAR) and the 2019 Bill Gates Sr. Prize.

Dr. Chloé Orland

grew up in France before moving to England to study biological sciences. She is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California Santa Cruz, USA, where she is researching various questions in environmental and conservation genomics. Her main projects focus on the reintroduction of the critically endangered black abalone in California and on the use of environmental DNA as a research and management tool. She has also been heavily involved in teaching and training undergraduates on these environmental genomics methods. Chloé received her PhD fin aquatic ecology from the University of Cambridge. There, her passion for education and scientific outreach led her to join the JR Biotek team and to work closely with Dr Carol Ibe on developing and running workshops for the Foundation.

Lyn Kouadio

Lyn Kouadio is an Ivorian PhD researcher in Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. She joined the JR Biotek Foundation UK team keen on supporting initiatives to help build capacity among budding scholars and researchers across the continent of Africa. Lyn is interested in questions of knowledge production on the continent as well as in the structures of power, both global and continental, that shape the academic trajectories, and sometimes sadly inhibit the success, of fellow junior African researchers. She believes that JR Biotek is an important force that challenges and reconfigures these structures on the continent and she considers it a blessing to be able to contribute towards the Foundations’ critical work.

Catherine Danmaigona Clement

Catherine is a Ph.D. candidate in the Plant Breeding program at Texas A&M University, working on cotton breeding, genetics and genomics with Dr. Jane Dever, Dr. Libo Shan, and Dr. Steve Hague. Her current research is centered on a recent outbreak of a devastating fungal pathogen (Fusarium wilt race 4) in Texas that currently threatens the US upland cotton industry. Susceptible cultivars are eliminated within one month after planting on naturally infected fields. Her research is focused on breeding for Fusarium oxysporum f. sp vasinfectum race 4 (Fov4) resistance in upland cotton, by utilizing long read and short read whole genome sequencing tools and cellular microscopy. She is also deploying strategies of comparative, and functional genomics of fungal wilt pathogens in cotton and identification of Fov4 R-genes and Avr genes by immune resistance (R) gene sequence capture (iRenSeq) and Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). Her Master's degree was in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Virginia Charlottesville and the University of Agriculture Makurdi Nigeria. Beyond her research at Texas A&M University, Catherine has a passion for teaching and giving back to her community and has since volunteered and devoted her time at the JR Biotek Foundation where she co-organizes free training workshops, and teaching statistics and data analysis to early career researchers and students in African countries.

Ayomide Olukorede

Ayomide is currently a PhD candidate at the John Innes Institute (UK) for the PhD Rotation Program in Plant and Microbial Science. She completed her Masters in Plant Science and Biotechnology at the University of Leeds, UK and served as a research assistant in the same laboratory. She has a solid background in Microbiology and her research interests include understanding how symbiotic and mutualistic microbial interaction of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobia with plants impact intercellular communication and plant growth. Ayomide is passionate about contributing her knowledge and skills in improving bioscience education and innovations in plant science for improved food security in Africa.

Dr Opeoluwa Oyewole

Dr Opeoluwa Oyewole completed her PhD in Immunology, Pathology, and Infectious Diseases in the Reid Lab at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She graduated with an M.S. in Biochemistry from The University of Tulsa and a B.S. in Biomedical Chemistry from Oral Roberts University. Currently, Ope studies host-pathogen interactions during Chikungunya virus infection to identify host-based targets for therapy. She joined JR Biotek to support the organization’s work in equipping future agricultural research leaders with the tools to innovate and develop research capacity to address food and nutrition insecurity in Africa. Ope is also interested in policy through a global lens. She seeks to understand how various global stakeholders can make science and health policies equitable and promote better STEM education, research, and healthcare access and delivery. Ope enjoys running, photography, and trying out new chocolate chip cookie recipes in her free time.

Dr. Seung Yon - (Sue) Rhee (She/Her)

Seung Yon (Sue) Rhee is a Senior Staff Member of Plant Biology Department at Carnegie Institution for Science. Her group strives to uncover molecular mechanisms underlying adaptive traits in the face of heat, drought, nutrient limitation, and pests. Dr. Rhee’s group studies a variety of plants including models, crops, medicinal and desert plants. Her group employs computational modeling and targeted laboratory testing to study mechanisms of adaptation, functions of novel genes, organization and function of metabolic networks, and chemical and neuronal code of plant-animal interactions. Her group is also interested in developing translational research programs involving biomass maximization under drought in bioenergy crops. More recently, Dr. Rhee has spearheaded a grassroots community building effort called the Plant Cell Atlas initiative, which strives to map all the molecular determinants of plant cells in order to understand and engineer them. Dr. Rhee received her B.A. in biology from Swarthmore College in 1992 and a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University in 1997. She has been an investigator at Carnegie’s Plant Biology Department since 1999. Dr. Rhee’s work is done on Stanford University campus, located on the ancestral land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, which was and continues to be of great importance to the Ohlone people.

Professor Marian D. Quain

Prof. Quain is a Chief Research Scientist with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI), as well as an Associate Professor with the CSIR College of Science and Technology. She served as the Deputy Director of the CSIR-CRI from October 2019 to December 2021. Marian obtained her first, second, and third degrees from the University of Ghana, Legon. Her PhD was a sandwich program with the University of KwaZulu Natal Durban, South Africa and Tuskegee University USA (sponsored by OWSD). Marian became a Schlumberger Research Fellow at the University of Leeds UK (from 2011 to 2013) and gained technical training in several countries including, China, Germany and Austria. Marian’s professional interests involve the use of tissue culture tools to generate clean planting materials of vegetatively propagated crops and molecular tools to facilitate crop breeding, genetic engineering and transcriptomics. Marian currently leads the biotechnology research program at CSIR-CRI and champions several biotechnology outreach programs. She was a Cochran fellow in 2017, an ASLP fellow 2017, and recognized as ‘the best research scientist in Ghana 2013’ by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Marian also received the ASPB excellence in education Award in 2018 and was recently celebrated as the 2022 AATF – OFAB and Biotechnology Hero.

Dr Paul Adams

Paul received his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2010, in the fields of genetics and neuroscience. His thesis was focused on the impact of alternative splicing on neurophysiology in migraine patients. Between 2010 and 2014, Dr. Adams was a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University in the Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience department, studying the impacts of genetic variations on neurophysiology and Parkinson’s Disease. In 2014, Dr. Adams took a faculty position at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) and has helped develop research capacity within the Biology Department. He led the conceptualization, building and launching of KPU’s Applied Genomics Centre (AGC). Dr. Adams is currently the Director of the AGC. The AGC is an applied research centre focused on developing genomic and metabolomic solutions for the agricultural industry. The Centre specializes in Sanger sequencing, next generation sequencing, real-time PCR, HPLC, GC-MS and microarray.

Dr. Nicola Patron

Nicola Patron is a research group leader in plant molecular and synthetic biology at the Earlham Institute, an independent bioscience institute located on the Norwich Research Park, UK. Her group investigates plant gene expression and metabolic diversification and applies this knowledge to engineering plants as photosynthetic platforms for biomanufacturing and to improve the yield and nutritional value of crops. Nicola also directs the Earlham Biofoundry, a facility developing automated, nanoscale workflows for biology and biotechnology. Nicola has a PhD in plant molecular biology and pursued postdoctoral research at The John Innes Centre and The University of British Columbia. As a 2015 SynBioLEAP fellow, Nicola was recognized as an emerging leader in synthetic biology.

Professor John Carr

Professor John Carr investigates how virus infection influences interactions of plants with other organisms and plants’ ability to withstand environmental stresses. His research interests include viral subversion of plant resistance, viral gene expression, plant-virus-insect vector interactions, and the effects of virus infection on interactions of plants with beneficial insects such as pollinators. He collaborates extensively on these topics internationally, and particularly with colleagues in sub-Saharan Africa. A fellow of both the Linnean Society and of the Royal Society of Biology, he is Associate Editor of New Phytologist and a member of the editorial board of Virology. He is a member of the following committees: Management Board of the Global Challenges Research Fund Community Network for African Vector-Borne Plant Viruses (CONNECTED) Steering Committee, Cambridge Global Food Security Interdisciplinary Research Centre Steering Committee, Cambridge Infectious Diseases Interdisciplinary Research Centre

Dr Sibongile Mafu

Sibongile received her BSc (2003) in Applied Biology and Biochemistry from the National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe and MSc (2009) in Biological Sciences from South Dakota State University. In 2013, she received her PhD in Biochemistry from Iowa State University and was a postdoctoral fellow at University of California – Davis from 2015 to 2017. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Massachusetts – Amherst. Research in the Mafu Lab focuses on understanding the evolution of chemical diversity in fungal pathogens and plants and explores how these organisms utilize this chemical diversity to interact with their environment.

Dr Jales Fonseca

Jales is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at the Texas A&M University. Born in Brazil, he graduated with a B.S. in agronomy from the São Paulo State University and obtained his M.Sc. in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the Federal University of Lavras. During his master's, he studied heterosis in sweet sorghum and engaged in data analysis and statistical modeling of discrete variables for breeding perennial grass (Urochloa ruziziensis). His Ph.D. research assessed new strategies to increase the rates of genetic gain in grain sorghum, including exchanging elite germplasm across distinct U.S. sorghum breeding programs and developing genomic prediction models. Currently, Jales coordinates the genomic selection program at Texas A&M Sorghum Breeding Program and is the acting lead for the project responsible for designing a database for the sorghum breeding community.

Dr Cy Tamanaha

Dr Cy Tamanaha is a R&D Engineer, Industrial Designer and Agricultural Manager. He is currently Head of Product Development at Theia Scientific, LLC (Arlington, VA, USA) where he contributes to efforts to automate microscopy and image analysis intensive workflows with Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning models that run on a variety of networked off-the-shelf and custom edge computing hardware. Previously he was a research engineer and the technology transfer point of contact for the Surface Nanoscience and Sensor Technology Section at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, DC, USA). He specialized in computer aided design, in-house manufacture, and testing of prototype sensor instrumentation and micro/macro fluidic apparatuses. He led a team responsible for developing one-off devices that have been utilized in optical, magnetoelectronic, BioFET (III-V semiconductor; graphene), cell-based chem/bio-sensor systems, and chemical detector testing facilities. Dr Tamanaha obtained his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA, USA). He grew up in a multi-generational family of farmers and ranchers, and maintains a vested interest in the ongoing operations of the family farm.

Mainda Kiwelu

Mainda grew up in East Africa before moving to England. She is an International Law and Business graduate with over 15 years of product management and marketing experience in multinational companies and startups covering various industries including publishing and education; professional services, shopping television, retail, travel, and the public sector. She has a passion for working with entrepreneurs, makers and young people to help build successful ventures. Using her skills and expertise in commercial, technology and intellectual property management areas, Mainda has been mentoring and supporting entrepreneurs through various programmes including at the Cambridge Judge Business School and the former The Queen's Young Leaders Programme.

Chigozie Ogwuegbu-Stephens

Chigozie was born and lived in Nigeria up until the age of 11 years old. With his family, they emigrated to Washington DC where he attained all my pre-college education. Chigozie went on to earn a B.A. in German/Economics at Middlebury College (VT) during which time I spent a semester in Mainz, Germany. Chigozie joined the US military and travelled the world, including three deployments. Chigozie began his military career as an enlisted analyst and ultimately transitioned to an Intelligence Officer after completing ROTC at Georgetown University while earning a Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) from American University School of Public Administration. Additionally, Chigozie earned a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from University of North Carolina School of Law (2015) is currently completing in Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Wake Forest University School of Business. Chigozie is an experienced risk and operations professional with extensive experience in the Financial Services and the Public Sector. Chigozie’s collective experience spans over three decades in some of the largest organization in the United States to include two of the largest Banks in the United States of America. Chigozie’s long history of risk and operations management began with his post-undergraduate career as an Imagery Intelligence analyst and solider in Special Operations. In his almost a decade of service in the US Army, Chigozie operated in and supported classified missions across the Middle East and Europe. Currently Chigozie is working as a senior risk professional and is a member of several Boards. Chigozie is a multi-cultural individual who enjoys meeting, interacting about people, cultures, and experiences. He is father to Eslyn, Ella and Ezekiel and husband to Danielle. In his spare time, Chigozie enjoys hiking with his family, reading good non-fiction books, and watching documentaries.

Advisory Board