Ismail is Post Doctoral Scientist with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). He is a population geneticist and plant breeder whose research interest includes the application of genomic tools in the improvement of cassava. He is currently working on the first SNP-based linkage map of cassava, determining the extent of linkage disequilibria as well as mapping of QTLs associated with cassava brown streak disease.  

Ismail is a Kenyan, and did his B. Sc. and M. Sc. at Kenyatta University in Biochemistry and Biotechnology. He recently graduated (magna cum laude) from the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany with a doctorate in Agricultural Sciences. At BecA-ILRI hub, he conducted his PhD research titled ‘Population Dynamics of Crop Sorghum: Genetic Structure, Pollen Dispersal and Out crossing rates’ funded by Bundesministerium für Zusammenarbeit, Bonn in collaboration with ICRISAT. Ismail looks forward to applying cutting edge life sciences technologies and biometrics to the currently emerging ‘avalanche’ of molecular data to uncover genotype-phenotype association that can be applied to the improvement of cassava, an important crop in Africa.