West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) has appointed Professor Jimmy Omoniyi Adegoke as its interim Executive Director. He takes over from Dr. Laurent Sedogo who for the past three years, was the Executive Director of WASCAL.

Prof. Adegoke’s appointment is a six-month executive management consultancy effective April 1, 2017. He will be the administrative head of the overall WASCAL organization and report to the Governing Board. Until this appointment, Prof. Adegoke was the Chair of the WASCAL Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)

Prof. Jimmy Adegoke is a climate scientist and tenured Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) where he served as Chair of the Department of Geosciences from 2008 to 2010 and currently Director of the Center for Applied Environmental Research (CAER). He brings on board rich science management experience and world class expertise in the fields of international climate science and environmental systems spanning over 30 years.

He was previously Executive Director of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Natural Resources & Environment (NRE) Division, Pretoria, South Africa from 2010 to 2012, where he also served as the Director of the Applied Centre for Climate & Earth Systems Science (ACCESS), a Centre of Excellence (CoE) of the South Africa Department of Science & Technology (DST) Global Change Grande Challenge (GCGC) programme.

Prof Adegoke earned a Ph.D. in Geography with specialization in Climate Science from The Pennsylvania State University, USA. He also holds degrees from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (BSc) and the University of Ibadan (MSc), both in Nigeria.

Professor Adegoke maintains permanent residence in Kansas City where he was, until recently, an appointee of the Mayor of Kansas City Missouri (KCMO) on the city’s Environmental Management Commission (EMC). He holds dual citizenship in Nigeria and the United States of America.

WASCAL is a leading academic and trans-disciplinary research organization building graduate-level scientific capacity and serving policy makers in West Africa with science-based advice on adaptation to climate change impacts and land use management. It cooperates with many agencies and universities in the region, providing a knowledge platform of excellence for its partners. WASCAL is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany and its 10 West African member countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d‘Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.