Emmanuel Omondi Otunga
Postdoctoral Scientist – Landscape Genomics and Crop Adaptation
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PhD in Horticultural Sciences, Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany
Genetic diversity, genomics, trait genetics, and phenotyping
Emmanuel joined WorldVeg in August 2021 as a postdoctoral scientist in landscape genomics and crop adaptation with a focus on various collections of African traditional vegetable species to intensify insights into crop adaptation and domestication. He was previously involved in HORTINLEA – a multidisciplinary research consortium on traditional African vegetables - where he gained considerable experience in genetic diversity and plant phenotyping research. Emmanuel taught in various universities in Kenya and served in various consultancy assignments advising and training farmers and other key stakeholders in traditional African vegetable, sorghum, and beans value chains. His main expertise includes molecular genetics and biotechnology. His interest at World Vegetable Center revolves around identifying the environmental factors that shape adaptive genetic variation and the gene variants that drive local adaptation of the natural populations of African traditional vegetable and genebank collections with the hope of compliment breeding and conservation efforts of these high-value crops