Romain Glèlè Kakaï has been a Full Professor of Biometry and Forest Estimations at the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) since 2015. He also serves as the head of the Laboratory of Biomathematics and Forest Estimations. He is the founder and current coordinator of the Master’s and PhD programmes in Biometry. From 2016 to 2024, he was President of the Scientific Council of Agronomic Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi and chaired the Scientific Council of the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Benin (2019 - 2022).

He earned his Agronomic Engineering degree in 1999, graduating top of his class and a Master’s in Applied Statistics and Informatics in 2001 at the University Faculty of Agronomic Sciences (Gembloux, Belgium) with the “Biométrie 88” Prize. In 2005, he obtained a doctorate in Biometry from the same institution and received the prestigious “Jan Tinbergen” Prize from the International Statistical Institute. A former fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2007), he has received several distinctions and has led numerous international collaborations.

Prof. Glèlè Kakaï has served as a Visiting Professor of Statistics in several African countries, including Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Togo, and Gabon. He is a former Young Affiliate of The World Academy of Sciences (2011–2015), a past member of the Global Young Academy (2012–2018), and has served as Chair of the African German Network of Excellence in Science (2019-2023). He leads a malaria modeling group within the Vaccine Impact Modeling Consortium.

He has authored over 350 peer-reviewed scientific papers, with more than 7,100 citations and an h-index of 46 as of March 2025. According to the AD Scientific Index, he is Benin's second most influential researcher. He has supervised numerous undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students, helping build a new generation of biostatisticians/biomathematicians and forest modelers across Africa.