Daniel Olago

Kenya

Professor, Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation (ICCA) & Department of Geology, University of Nairobi

Daniel Olago is Associate Professor of Geology and Director of the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, University of Nairobi. Daniel was elected RHODES Scholar for Kenya, 1990, and obtained his D.Phil. in Physical Geography/Quaternary Geology at the University of Oxford, England. Prior to that he was a DAAD Scholar at the University of Nairobi. His research interests are in the following areas: Environmental geology, Water resources and hydrogeochemistry, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology, Geolimnology, and Human impact on the environment – past and present. He has published widely in these fields of research (over 150 research articles, book chapters and edited books) and in 1998 won the International START Young Scientist Award for an international journal published research paper (Global and Planetary Change Vol. 26 /1-3: 159-171).  His current projects are: REACH – Improving Water Security for the Poor https://reachwater.org.uk/; Development Corridors Partnership Project https://developmentcorridors.org/; AfriWatSan www.afriwatsan.org (Sustaining low-cost, urban water supply and sanitation systems in Africa, with a focus on Kisumu); and the African Great Lakes Information (AGLI) Platform project https://www.africangreatlakesinform.org/. Prof. Olago has attended training workshops in: Integrated Environmental Assessment and Reporting; Development and Application of Scenarios in Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability Assessments; and GIS Applications for Management of Earth Resources Data and Information. Prof. Olago has been involved in multi-disciplinary research, training and capacity building activities on global environmental change in sub-Saharan Africa for over 25 years, including supervision of 10 PhD and over 30 MSc students. He has provided consultancy both locally and abroad for a wide variety of clientele in the areas of climate change, environmental impact assessments and audits for construction, mineral, water and energy industry; groundwater and water conflict resolution; water resources and management. He is a past member of the IGBP-PAGES Scientific Steering Committee and the Variability in African Climate System (CLIVAR-VACS) Panel; Current Member, International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC) with activities in Lake Victoria and other Kenyan lakes; Former Chairman of the Geological Society of Kenya; Fellow of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences, and Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. He was also a Lead Author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report that won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007, and is contributing to the Africa Chapter as Lead Author in the current IPCC assessment.