Shimelis Hussein is a full professor of plant breeding with over 30 years of teaching and research experience in Africa. He has served as a lecturer and senior lecturer at Haramaya University/Ethiopia (1991 to 2000) and is presently serving at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa. He is the current Director of the African Center for Crop Improvement (ACCI) at UKZN.
He has made significant, ongoing contributions, including new plant variety design for food security and training of 63 PhD- and 38 MSc-level agricultural scientists in Africa. He has been one of the top 30 published researchers at UKZN for the past seven years without interruption and for being the top in 2022. He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and a rated researcher. Presently, he has a Google Scholar H index of 54, a Scopus H index of 37 and a Web of Science H index of 32. He has excellent partnerships with National Agricultural Research and Extension Services in 20 African countries, both public and private sector, as well as international research centres and various universities. He is a founding member and advocate of Pan Africa Demand-led Breeding (DLB), which advances the business of plant breeding on the continent. He was recognized as one of Africa’s 20 most influential plant breeders of 2020 by the Southern Africa Plant Breeders’ Association.
