Dr. Tadele Tefera is the Country Head of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) Ethiopia, where he provides strategic leadership for icipe’s science, partnerships, and operations, and contributes to institutional governance as a member of the icipe’s senior leadership structures. He oversees a major research and development portfolio advancing agrifood system transformation, youth employment, and climate-resilient agriculture.

Dr. Tefera leads major multi-donor initiatives focused on mass youth employment in agribusiness, apiculture value chains, agroecological farming systems, and climate-resilient crop diversification, reaching hundreds of thousands of farmers and young entrepreneurs. He regularly represents icipe in high-level policy and diplomatic engagements with governments, development partners, donors, and international organizations.

Before joining icipe, Dr. Tefera worked at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Nairobi, Kenya, where he served as Regional Project Leader and Scientist. He led multi-country programs on post-harvest loss reduction, maize improvement, seed system strengthening, and integrated pest management across Eastern and Southern Africa. His work contributed to the development of insect-resistant maize germplasm and to the scaling of hermetic grain-storage technologies, which significantly reduced post-harvest losses among smallholder farmers.

Earlier in his career, he served as Associate Professor and Director of Agricultural Research and Extension at Haramaya University, Ethiopia. He has also served as a consultant to international organizations, including the World Bank and regional bodies such as IGAD, on crop protection, reducing food loss, and agricultural policy.

Dr. Tefera is a board member of the International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences (IAPPS), former Editor-in-Chief of the East African Journal of Sciences, Guest Editor of Frontiers in Insect Science, and international editorial board member of the Indian Journal of Entomology. He has authored more than 120 scientific publications (H-index 43, in 2025), holds a patent on biological pesticides, and has supervised more than 30 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

He is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and has been recognized among the Stanford University–Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists (2021–2025) for both career-long and annual scientific impact.

Dr. Tefera obtained his PhD in Agricultural Entomology from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and holds an MSc and a BSc in Agriculture from Haramaya University, Ethiopia. He was also a postdoctoral fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Göttingen, Germany.