People

Dr Jane Olwoch holds a PhD from the University of Pretoria and an MBA from the Business School, Netherlands among her other qualifications. She is a climate change impact specialist with a background in vector ecology. She is the Executive Director of the Southern Africa Science Service Center for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL). She is responsible for providing strategic leadership and senior management expertise in Research, Human Capital Development and the provision of climate services in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This position also entails establishing and maintaining various stakeholder needs in this multicultural environment.

Prior to this position, Jane Olwoch was the Managing Director of Earth Observation at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). In this position, she set up a whole new Directorate of Earth Observation. She spearheaded collaborations with many Space Agencies and promoted synergies with other Earth observation institutions in the country and internationally within the framework of the National Earth Observation Strategy.

Jane Olwoch has over 15 years’ research and training experience at Higher Institutions of learning in the field of Environmental science and climate change. At the University of Pretoria, she was the coordinator of the Environmental Science undergraduate degree program and the manager of the postgraduate degree in Environment and Society. She has authored/co-authored over 40 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, books and book chapters and supervised to completion over 40 Honors and master’s students and five PhD students. Dr Jane Olwoch is a recipient of the prestigious TUKS Alumni Award in 2014.

On the National level, she served as a member of the National Committee of Spatial Data, a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Southern Africa Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL), and as a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Geo-Information Science at the University of Pretoria. Internationally, she is a Lead Author of Chapter 11, IPCC Human Health, of the working group 2 to the IPCC, Fifth Assessment Report (2010-2014). From 2014-2017, she was a vice-Chair and later the Chair of the Working Group on Capacity Development and Data Democracy of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). She is serving on the Steering Committee of Future Earth Regional Office for Southern Africa (FEROSA). She is also serving on the Independent Steering Committee of CGIAR/CCAFS.