Name: Atanda Samuel Oladejo
Qualifications: B. Agric, M.Phil., Ph.D
Status: Senior Lecturer
Specialization: Plant Breeding/Genetics
Email: soladejo@oauife.edu.ng
Telephone: +2348033865689
I, Dr Atanda S. Oladejo is a lecturer and scientist (plant breeder) in the Department of Crop Production and Protection, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile – Ife, Nigeria; and former research fellow at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan – Nigeria, where I conducted my PhD research. My research was to develop cowpea cultivars that are resistant to a major biotic stress (flower bud thrips –Megalurothrips sjostedti) of cowpea; and I eventually discovered preponderance of additive gene action confers resistance to the insect pest. Four outstanding resistant lines out of 305 cowpea lines screened were identified; while North Carolina Design mating II was employed to generate population in a multi-parent inter-cross system to determine best breeding methods to develop enhanced resistant varieties to the insect pest. My career goal is to find the lasting solution to the problems militating against food security via qualitative research in plant breeding and applied genetics in conjunction with agronomy. I am an awardee and fellow of Nuffic Fellowship of Wageningen University, The Netherland, and that of Nigeria Tertiary Education Trust Fund for academic development and research which lent credence to my recent participation in apomixis research in at Utah State University, Logan – UT 84320, United States of America, as a visiting scientist in 2022. I have published journal articles in both national and international journal outlets including Springer Nature. Furtherance to my academic advancement and experiences, my attendance and participation in many training workshops and conferences organized by both national and international bodies have enhanced my scientific, leadership and managerial capacities. Among these are: DNA barcoding workshop organized by DNA Learning Centre, Cold Spring Harbor and Bowie State University, USA in 2013. In addition, I am a beneficiary of Nuffic Fellowship of Wageningen University, The Netherlands on Plant Genetic Resources and Seeds held in India between October –November, 2014, among others. I am dynamic and versatile in statistics and the use of statistical software vis a vis SAS, SPSS, GGE-biplot for data analyses; and with great ability for excellence in research, I teach and co-teach up to twelve courses in Genetics, Plant Breeding, Agronomy, Statistics and Report writing; and I supervise students at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
As a prolific scientist, I won four grants and fellowships for both capacity building trainings and research within the past six years of my career development. The most recent was one was BOLD Project won from the Crop Trust, Bonn, Germany and the government of Norway by my team in which I am the Principal Investigator. The project is on duplicate regeneration of local legumes and indigenous vegetables in Nigeria. The main goal of this project is to preserve the genetic diversity of our food crops which is central to achieving food and nutrition security in the face changing adverse conditions – climate change and inversion of insect pests and diseases infestation. Other details about my professional opulence are found in my curriculum vitae.