Professor yalemtsehay Mekonnen: the first female professor from AAU

 Professor yalemtsehay Mekonnen: the first female

professor from AAU

Professor Yalemtsehay Mekonnen is a biologist and an academic

member of staff at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science,

Addis Ababa University. She has worked in this Department for

the last 30 years. She received her PhD, specialising in human

physiology, from the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

One of her research areas is the assessment of the impact of

chemical pesticide hazard on humans. Tis research covers almost

all government farms including the Upper Awash Agricultural

farms and some private horticultural farms in the Rif Valley region.

Te other area of her research is in the use of plants as medicine

against human and animal diseases.

Professor Yalemtsehay Mekonnen served as Head of the

Department of Biology from 1993 to 1995 and as the Director of

the Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology from February 2003

to October 2007. In leadership positions she was involved and has

initated a number of national and international research networks

and collaborations. She is a member of many professional societies,

such as the Biological Society of Ethiopia, the Safe Environment

Association, the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society, the

New York Academy of Sciences and the Tird World Organization

for Women in Science. She has served as President of the Biological

Society of Ethiopia.

She has been awarded research grants and fellowships nationally

from the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission and the

Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization, and internationally

from the British Council, the International Foundation for Science,

Tird World Academy of Sciences, the German Academic Exchange

Service and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation from

Germany