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Gladness Elibariki Temu (Ph.D); Email:  gladye2000@yahoo.com;  temu.gladness@udsm.ac.tz

Dr. Temu is a Lecturer and Researcher in Crop Biotechnology in the fields of biotechnology and molecular biology. She is/has been a member of: Ministerial Advisory Board of Tanzania Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA), National Agricultural Biosafety Technical Committee (ABTEC), Steering committee of the various Biotechnology bodies including Biotechnology and Biosafety Rapid Assessment Policy Platform (BioRAPP), Steering committee and Ex-com of the Biotechnology Society of Tanzania (BST). She is a Laureate of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) and Africa Science Leadership Programme (ASLP) under Future Africa. She has been nominated as a member of various technical committees within and outside the University including Jury of UDSM research week, Jury of the Science slam programme of the ITV-Deutsche Welle-UDSM (a.k.a Kesho-Leo program). Dr. Temu was mentored by various renowned scientists in Africa and abroad via the following regional mentoring programmes: African Women in Agriculture Research and Development (AWARD)-Nairobi; Africa Science Leadership Programme under Future Africa-South Africa; Intellectual Property Rights in Plant Genetic Resources (IPRPGR)-Sweden & Switzerland. She is currently a mentor of a number of young scientists formally and informally, some of them being Ph.D students, MSc. Students, Research and Tutorial Assistants, Primary and Secondary girls in Science, youths  and others in the community.

Dr Temu has been well participating in the community work including: Leading a team of researchers in the dissemination of improved yam planting materials to some farmers to boost production in Pwani and Unguja, dissemination of improved cassava planting materials tolerant to climate change stresses. As a role model, Dr. Temu has been severally served as an invited Guest of Honor/Speaker for secondary and university graduates to inspire them on their science career path and women in Leadership.

She is also a Lead Scientist in a number of biotechnological projects whereby her research interest spins around plant genetic resources, conventional and modern crops improvement technologies such as tissue culture, genetic engineering, marker assisted selection, plant endophytes, biosafety and agricultural microbiology.  Her researches are geared towards addressing complex challenges faced by small holder farmers such as: management of cassava viruses, MAS breeding of cassava germplasm adapted to climate change stresses; micro-propagation and minisetts technologies to enhance availability of planting materials of taro and yam; development of molecular kits for nematode management in banana, genetic diversity studies etc. She has received numerous sponsorships, awards, certificates of recognition, certificate of competence among others. She holds an MSc (Molecular Biology) and PhD in Crop Biotechnology and she has published several papers in local and international journals. Links: AWARD, Future Africa, Research Gate, LinkedIn