Prof. Danny Coyne

Danny Coyne has effectively spent his working life in tropical agricultural research and development in Africa, working at both the national program and international research institute levels. After graduating in Applied Biology from Liverpool Polytechnic, UK, he worked briefly as a field trials officer with Schering Agrochemicals in the UK. In 1989, he left the UK to become an agricultural extension officer in rural Tanzania to address maize storage pests. He returned to the UK for his MSc in Agricultural Research and Development from the University of East Anglia, UK. He was then seconded to the Uganda National Agricultural Research Organization, under the UK Associate Professional Officer scheme, to assess nematode problems in root and tuber crops. With a newfound interest in nematology, he moved to (what is now) AfricaRice to examine the influence of nematodes on rice in West Africa. He gained a Ph.D. from the University of Reading, UK in 1999. After a short spell as an advisor to a GTZ crop pest management project in Malawi, he took up the position of Nematologist at IITA in 2001. With specialization in plant nematology, his interests extend to pest and disease interactions, especially within the realm of soil health, and biologically based control of nematode pests. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium.