Idah Sithole-Niang is an Associate Professor and Head of Department at the University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Biochemistry, which she joined in 1992. During her tenure she has been teaching molecular biology to both undergraduate and post graduate students. Her research work has been in the area of cowpea crop improvement where in collaboration with scientists in the Netherlands, France and the United States of America; molecularly characterised the cowpea aphid-borne mosaic potyvirus and sequenced it in its entirety. Prof Sithole-Niang has also worked on the application of molecular markers in sorghum and other organisms as well. She maintains a keen interest in biotechnology and biosafety issues as they relate to Sub-Saharan Africa especially, and has co-authored authoritative articles on the subject. Prof Sithole-Niang obtained a PhD from Michigan State University (MSU) in 1988, working on chicken and turkey herpersviruses. She then spent four years as a post doctoral fellow at the Plant Research Laboratory (MSU) working on the genetics of photosynthesis in cyanobacteria. Prof Sithole-Niang is the recipient of an outstanding graduate woman of the year award at MSU in 1988, the First William Brown Fellowship in 1990 and the Rockefeller Biotechnology Career Fellowship in 1992. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Virologists, Sigma Xi, The New York Academy of Sciences, the Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences and the Research Council of Zimbabwe. She is a Trustee of the Joshua Nkomo Scholarships and chairs its Selection Committee, she sits on the Selection Committee for the Rhodes Scholarships in Zimbabwe and the newly formed African Women for Agriculture and Research and Development (AWARD) programme. Prof Sithole-Niang is a Technical Advisor for the Program for Biosafety Systems for sub-Saharan Africa, member of the Oversight Committee of the Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), Vice Chairperson of the Research Council of Zimbabwe, and a Steering Committee member of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD).