Speakers > Wednesday 26th October 2022

Ndjido A.Kane (ISRA-CERAAS, Sénégal)

Dr Ndjido A. Kane is a plant geneticist and molecular biologist. He uses the latest biotechnological tools to identify the genetic traits that govern crop performance in arid environments, as well as to exploit crop genetic diversity in anticipation of climate change and to meet the needs of the growing population. He is Director of ISRA-CERAAS, a regional centre of excellence specialising in research and training on dryland cereals and associated crops. Previously, he coordinated the national programme "Agrobiodiversity management and biotechnology". He is the author of numerous publications (articles, book chapters, patents, dissertations and data sheets). He is a member of the national committees on climate services and biosafety regulation and leads the ISRA committees on open data.

Institutional personal webpage

Innocent Azilan (Universités de Toulon et de Lomé, Togo)

Innocent AZILAN is a research fellow at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) on Open Science policies in Africa. He is also a doctoral student in Information and Communication Sciences at the IMSIC. My thesis work focuses on the challenges of Open Science in the countries of the South, particularly in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.

Nokuthula Mchunu (AOSP, South Africa) : Deputy director

Dr Nokuthula Mchunu is the Deputy Director at the African Open Science Platform hosted by the National Research Foundation, South Africa. Dr Mchunu has a wealth of experience in academia outreach programmes, the popularisation of science, and STEM with local communities. She was senior Researcher from the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa in the Biotechnology Platform. She completed her doctoral degree in fungal genomics, was previously a senior scholar in the Department of Biotechnology of Durban University of Technology for more that 15 years.

She has also served as a scientist in a number of international institutions including the University of Cincinnati (USA), Lund University (Sweden), Tianjin University, (China) and the Centre for Chemical Biology (Malaysia).

Sünje Dallmeier-Tiessen (CERN, Switzerland) : Head of Open Science Productions

Sünje has always developed for research. After starting out in the geosciences and then in scientific publications, her interest in research data and open research practices led her to the world's largest particle physics research laboratory: CERN.
After a PhD at CERN and Humboldt University in Berlin, a research stay at Harvard University and, most recently, a secondment to Germany's largest research organisation, she returned to her roots at CERN.  There she guides the community towards open and replicable research practices and services.

Through the various projects, Sunje has developed an understanding of data management from all possible perspectives: producers, users, developers, research institutions and policy makers. With the increasing complexity of open and reusable research practices, it is essential to have a comprehensive view of what is needed to prepare for the future.

Some considerations from his work :: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0342-2 

Personal webpage

Louise Bezuindenhout (DANS, Pays-Bas) : Data expert team member

Louise Bezuidenhout is a social scientist who specializes in issues related to open science, data sharing and access.Her research is broadly oriented around themes such as justice and access, inclusion and marginalization, and equity. Much of her  work has focused on identifying ways to improve the inclusion of researchers from low- and middle-income countries in the open science landscape. This work involved integrated ethnographies, interviews and surveys in a number of countries in Africa, Europe and North America.

Dr Bezuidenhout holds PhDs in Cardiothoracic Surgery (University of Cape Town, RSA) and Sociology (University of Exeter, UK). She has held postdoctoral research positions at the universities of Exeter (UK), Notre Dame (USA), Oxford (UK) and Cape Town (RSA). She has also been a lecturer at University College London (UK), the University of the Witwatersrand (RSA) and the University of Oxford (UK).

Dr Bezuidenhout currently works for Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) in the Netherlands as a senior research data expert. Her current work focuses on the evolution of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), and involves working with multi-partner consortia to develop responsible EOSC training and research materials. She also participates in discussions on the evolution of global open science clouds, the South African Open Science Cloud and the African Open Science Platform.

Dominique Bafwa Ngeleka (CRESH, République Démocratique du Congo)
Dominique Bafwa Ngeleka is a researcher at the Centre de Recherche en Sciences Humaines (CRESH) since 1992. Scientific Director and Co-creator of the Water and Environment Chair (CREE) of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation. Author and co-author of numerous scientific publications (Articles, studies and books) on human rights, career guidance, migration and environment and other issues in a transdisciplinary approach.
Expert in human rights, migration and sustainable development, he is also member of several working groups and learned societies such as RDA-France, GREO, DORA, OACPS-TI, EAA, OASPA, ADEA, IFDD, ADBS.
He supervises the Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Changement Climatique et Développement Durable, a research unit on climate and its issues in the DRC. Investigations focus on cross-cutting issues: SDGs, hazards related to climate change (floods, droughts, storms, etc.), migration, urbanisation, food security, etc. The aim is to pilot, analyse and disseminate indicators on the SDGs in relation to sustainable development issues in the
DRC.

Véronique Chaffard (IRD, France)

Hamid Hachelafi (Université Oran, Algérie)

Hamid Hachelafi is a university hospital teacher-researcher at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Oran. His research interests include e-learning in higher education, narrative medicine, road accidents and psycho-criminality. He is the author of about thirty academic books and novels and has led several research projects with multidisciplinary teams.

Edouard Ngor Sarr (UASZ, Sénégal)

Edouard Ngor SARR is a teacher-researcher in computer science at the University Assane SECK of Ziguinchor (UASZ) in Senegal. He also worked as a teacher-researcher and head of the ICT-IS laboratory at the Catholic University of West Africa (CERIDES-UCAO) from 2014 to 2019. He is also a member of the CHECK4DECISION research project ( https://check4decision.univ-thies.sn/  ) based at the University of Thies and funded by CEAMITIC. This project, which is an extension of his doctoral thesis, deals with issues related to the automation of data collection and aggregation from the web as well as automatic fact-checking in the context of web journalism. The interest lies not only in its innovative scientific positioning, but also and above all in the fact that it integrates a societal approach to the issue of information management.

Eric Rosenthal (INSERM, France)