Science, Medicine & Engineering
Peerless
Thomas R. Odhiambo
1931 – 2003
Founded ICIPE in a Nairobi garage, and then the African Academy of Sciences
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Kenya Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He started an insect research centre in a garage with three staff in 1970, and it became one of the continent's great scientific institutions. Then he founded the African Academy of Sciences and became its first president.
Thomas Risley Odhiambo was born on 4 February 1931 and educated at Maseno School, Makerere, and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he took his doctorate in 1965 under Vincent Wigglesworth with a thesis on the reproductive physiology of the desert locust.
In 1970 he founded the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in a Nairobi garage with a staff of three, becoming its full-time director in 1978 and building it into a major research institution. He also helped establish the Third World Academy of Sciences and the Kenya National Academy of Sciences, and founded the African Academy of Sciences, serving as its first president. He died on 26 May 2003.
In 1970 he founded the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in a Nairobi garage with a staff of three, becoming its full-time director in 1978 and building it into a major research institution. He also helped establish the Third World Academy of Sciences and the Kenya National Academy of Sciences, and founded the African Academy of Sciences, serving as its first president. He died on 26 May 2003.
Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will check it.