Jane Olwoch is a climate change impact specialist with a background in vector ecology. She holds a Botany/Zoology degree from Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda), MSc Biology from the Medical University of Southern Africa (Medunsa), a PhD from the University of Pretoria and an MBA from the Business School, Netherlands.

She is the Executive Director of the Southern Africa Science Service Center for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) www.sasscal.og. In this position, she reports to the Chair of the Governing of the six countries Angola, Botswana, Germany, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia) that make up SASSCAL.

She is responsible for providing leadership and senior management expertise in research and human capital development and for providing climate professional services in SADC. Dr Jane Olwoch is also the coordinator of H2 Atlas, Africa Project funded by BMBF H2Atlas-Africa website. Prior to this position, Jane Olwoch was the Managing Director of Earth Observation at the South African National Space Agency (SANSA). She was responsible for Senior Management including operations, people, finance and stakeholder management.

In this position, she was primarily responsible for setting up the Directorate and providing a strategic direction and promoting synergies with other Earth observation institutions in the country within the framework of the National Earth Observation Strategy.

Furthermore, Jane Olwoch has 24 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 Environmental Science undergraduate degree program and the manager of the postgraduate degree in Environment and Society.

Through the combined training experience and research expertise, she has authored/co-authored over 52 publications in peer review international journals, books and book chapters and supervised to completion over 40 Honors and Masters Students and five PhD students. I was ranked as C2 rated Scientist by the NRF in 2012. Dr Jane Olwoch is a recipient the 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 a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Geo-Information Science at the University of Pretoria.

Internationally, I am a Lead Author of Chapter

11, IPCC Human Health, of the working group 2 to IPCC, fifth Assessment Report (2010-2014). From 2014-2017, was a vice Chair and later the Chair of the Working Group on Capacity Development of CEOS from 2013-2017. She is a member of the steering Commitee of Future Earth Regional Office

for Southern Africa (FEROSA), a member of Future Earth Global Assembly.