Dr. Confidence Kalu | Climate Smart Agriculture | Best Researcher Award

Dr. National Root Crops Research Institute Umudike Abia State, Nigeria

Dr. Confidence Amaechi Kalu is a Chief Research Fellow at the National Root Crops Research Institute in Umudike, Nigeria, with a PhD in Agribusiness and Financial Management. Her research focuses on agricultural economics, with experience ranging from graduate internships to postdoctoral research. She has participated in numerous professional training programs and leadership courses, including Women in Leadership Training funded by Australian Awards Africa and project management by HiiT Plc Lagos. Dr. Kalu has received significant research grants, such as the Australian awards grant on Agribusiness value chain and the World Bank Step B Project Grant for her PhD dissertation. She is dedicated to advancing agricultural research and education.

Professional Profiles:

Scopus

Orcid

EDUCATION 🎓

Doctoral Degree
PhD in Agribusiness and Financial Management 16/10/2015 Department of Agribusiness and Management, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria

Master’s Degree
MSc in Farm Management and Production Economics 12/8/2008 Department of Agricultural Economics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria

Bachelor’s Degree
BSc (Honors) in Agricultural Economics and Extension 28/11/2002 Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Secondary School
Senior School Certificate 2/9/1996 Community Secondary School Ohanze, Abia State, Nigeria

Primary School
First School Leaving Certificate 20/6/1989 Mosque Street Girls Primary School, Aba, Abia State, Nigeria

HISTORY OF RESEARCH SERVICE 📚

Aug – Dec 2001: Graduate Internship, University Farm, Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Sept 2003-Aug 2004: National Youth Service Corps, Agricultural Science Teacher, Unity Secondary School Gwaram, Jigawa State Feb 2005-Mar 2006: Agricultural Officer, CAE Farms Nigeria Limited 2007-2010: Assistant Lecturer, Proof Management College, Eket, Akwa Ibom State. 2010-2015: PhD Research Fellow, Department of Agribusiness, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike 2016-date: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria

PROFESSIONAL ENHANCEMENT TOWARDS KNOWLEDGE GENERATION 🌱

LEADERSHIP TRAININGWomen in Leadership Training funded by Australian Awards Africa (September 24-27, 2019)Project Management and Leadership Training Course organized by HiiT Plc Lagos (August 26 – October 2022) PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND SYNERGISTIC ACTIVITIES

Grant Writing Proposal Training organized by Agricultural Policy Research Network in Delta State University Asaba, Nigeria (July 2-4, 2017) Rapid Value Chain Analysis Training sponsored by Australia Awards Africa held in Ghana (October 2017) Training on Econometric Analysis with RATS and EVIEWS held at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria (June and July 2018) Workshop on the Use of LSMS Data held in Nairobi, Kenya (August 2019) Training on Survey Data Analysis using STATA held at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria, sponsored by Feed the Future Nigeria Agriculture Policy Activity (July 3-7, 2023) Online Programming Course on Python (July – August 2020) Impact Evaluation Retooling Workshop for Researchers and Teaching Faculty from Sub-Saharan Africa organized by African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) in Nairobi (July 5-11, 2023)

🏆RESEARCH GRANTS AND AWARDS

Australian Awards Grant on Agribusiness Value Chain held in Queensland University Brisbane (16th August – 2nd October 2017) World Bank Step B Project Grant for PhD Dissertation (October 2014 – August 2015)

✍️Publications Top Note :

Article: A Comparison of the Drying Kinetics, Energy Consumption and Colour Quality of Drying Medicinal Leaves in Direct-Solar Dryer with Different Colours of Collector Cover

Authors: Ndukwu, M.C., Akpan, G., Okeahialam, A.N., … Mbanasor, J., Wu, H.
Journal: Renewable Energy, 2023, Vol. 216, Article 119076
Citations: 3

Article: Heat Transfer Correlations and Pressure Drop Dynamics of Palm Fibre Wetting Media for Evaporative Cooling at Different Air Flow Rates

Authors: Ndukwu, M.C., Matthew, I., Godwin, A., … Mbanasor, J., Wu, H.
Journal: International Journal of Refrigeration, 2023, Vol. 154, pp. 268–280
Citations: 0

Review: Progressive Review of Solar Drying Studies of Agricultural Products with Exergoeconomics and Econo-Market Participation Aspect

Authors: Ndukwu, M.C., Ibeh, M., Okon, B.B., … Mbanasor, J., Bennamoun, L.
Journal: Cleaner Environmental Systems, 2023, Vol. 9, Article 100120
Citations: 5

Article: Analysis of the Influence of Outdoor Surface Heat Flux on the Inlet Water and the Exhaust Air Temperature of the Wetting Pad of a Direct Evaporative Cooling System

Authors: Ndukwu, M.C., Ibeh, M.I., Akpan, G.E., … Ben, A.E., Mbanasor, J.
Journal: Applied Thermal Engineering, 2023, Vol. 226, Article 120292
Citations: 5

Article: Farmers’ Perspective toward a Demand-Led Yam Breeding in Nigeria

Authors: Kalu, C., Nnabue, I., Edemodu, A., … Asfaw, A., Obidiegwu, J.E.
Journal: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2023, Vol. 7, Article 1227920
Citations: 1

Article: Quality Attributes of Fufu in South-East Nigeria: Guide for Cassava Breeders

Authors: Chijioke, U., Madu, T., Okoye, B., … Fliedel, G., Egesi, C.
Journal: International Journal of Food Science and Technology, 2021, Vol. 56(3), pp. 1247–1257
Citations: More details

Dr. Yong Wang | computational Award | Best Researcher Award

Dr. Yong Wang, Zhejiang University, China

Dr. Yong Wang is academic and researcher in the field of renewable energy, holds a PhD in Bio systems Engineering from Kangwon National University, South Korea. His academic journey has been marked by a profound dedication to advancing solar energy technologies, specifically in solar thermal harvesting and its integration into agricultural and architectural applications.

Professional Profiles:

Google scholar

orcid

🎓 Teaching and Tutoring

Jury for International Biosensor Competition: SensUs 2023 (2023)Supervisor for TruSense, Zhejiang University (2021-)Teacher for Ingenious Synthetic Biology, Zhejiang University (2022-)Teaching Assistant for Advanced Protein Science 2 – Protein Structure Determination (graduate course), University of Copenhagen (2020, 2019)Teaching Assistant for Advanced Protein Science (graduate course), University of Copenhagen (2015)Tutor for Postdoc, PhD, MSc, and BSc students.

📝 Editorial Roles

Academic Editor for PLoS One (2023-)Associate Editor for Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences (2021-)Editorial Board Member of Peer J (2023-)Ad Hoc Young Editorial Board Member of Journal of Molecular Cell Biology (JMCB) (2020-)Second Youth Editorial Board Member of Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2023-)

🔍 Reviewer

Journal Reviewer for prestigious journals.Grant Reviewer for the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Computational Grants.

👥 Memberships

Member of the PLUMED ConsortiumMember of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyMember of Chinese Chemical Society

AWARDS & GRANTS🏆

Recognition for contributions:Zhejiang Provincial National Science Foundation (No. XXX) (300 K ¥) 2024-2026National Science Foundation of China (No. 32371300) (500 K ¥) 2024-2027Start-up funding of Zhejiang University (4.0 M ¥) 2021-2027National Key R & D Program of China (No. 2021YFF1200404) (4.55 M ¥) 2021-2024Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No. K20220228) (900 K ¥) 2022-2024HPC-Europa3 Transnational Access program for visiting Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry Spring of 2020EMBO Short-term Fellowship for visiting Prof. Michele Parrinello lab at ETH Zurich, Switzerland Spring of 2016The PhD Scholarship at the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen (2013-2016)

📊 Citation Metrics (Google Scholar):

Citations: 1547

h-index: 23

i10-index: 31

And if we consider the second set:

Citations: 1074

h-index: 21

i10-index: 30

📖 Publications Top Note :

A Computational and Chemical Design Strategy for Manipulating Glycan-Protein Recognition

Q Zhu, D Geng, J Li, J Zhang, H Sun, Z Fan, J He, N Hao, Y Tian, L Wen, …

Advanced Science, 2024

Diverse roles of the metal binding domains and transport mechanism of copper transporting P-type ATPases

Z Guo, F Orädd, V Bågenholm, C Grønberg, JF Ma, P Ott, Y Wang, …

Nature Communications, 2609, 2024

Dissecting the mechanism of atlastin-mediated homotypic membrane fusion at the single-molecule level

L Shi, C Yang, M Zhang, K Li, K Wang, L Jiao, R Liu, Y Wang, M Li, …

Nature Communications, 2488, 2024

Euglena’s atypical respiratory chain adapts to the discoidal cristae and flexible metabolism

Z He, M Wu, H Tian, L Wang, Y Hu, F Han, J Zhou, Y Wang, L Zhou

Nature Communications, 1628, 2024

Structures and ion transport mechanisms of plant high-affinity potassium transporters

J Wang, Y Luo, F Ye, ZJ Ding, SJ Zheng, S Qiao, Y Wang, J Guo, W Yang, …

Molecular Plant, 2024

Structural basis for sugar perception by Drosophila gustatory receptors

D Ma, M Hu, X Yang, Q Liu, F Ye, W Cai, Y Wang, X Xu, S Chang, R Wang, …

Science, eadj2609, 2024

PAFAH2 suppresses synchronized ferroptosis to ameliorate acute kidney injury

Q Zhang, T Sun, F Yu, W Liu, J Gao, J Chen, H Zheng, J Liu, C Miao, …

Nature Chemical Biology, 1-12, 2024

Structure and mechanism of Zorya anti-phage defense system

H Hu, TCD Hughes, PF Popp, A Roa-Eguiara, FJO Martin, N Rutbeek, …

bioRxiv, 1, 2024

The effect of linker conformation on performance and stability of a two-domain lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase

Z Forsberg, AA Stepnov, G Tesei, Y Wang, E Buchinger, SK Kristiansen, …

Journal of Biological Chemistry, 299 (11), 2023

Ex vivo structures from spinach leaves

J Wang, NT Johansen, LF Gamon, Z Zhao, Z Guo, Y Wang, AT Fuglsang, …

biorxiv, 2023

Confidence Kalu | Climate Smart Agriculture | Best Researcher Award