Prof. Zeyaur R. Khan, is a distinguished agricultural scientist and a professional entomologist working for the last 20 years as a Principal Scientist and Leader of Habitat Management Programme with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Kenya.

Prof. Khan has dedicated his 32 year career as an international agricultural scientist to advancing the science and practice of agriculture by studying and applying chemical ecology, behavior, plant-plant and insect-plant interactions to improve farm productivity to combat poverty and food insecurity in Africa.

He is responsible for the discovery wide scale-scale implementation of the Push-Pull technology (www.push-pull.net), and its subsequent adaptation to climate change for enhancing food security and environmental sustainability for small-holder cereal-livestock African farmers.

Prof. Khan’s work is a wonderful example demonstrating that creativity and innovation in science can provide practical solutions for the real problems of thousands of small-holder poor farmers and promote their food security and sustainable livelihoods. More than 500,000 people in about 57,000 households are now food secure thrthe ough adoption of push-pull Technology. Prof. Khan’s goal is to end hunger and poverty for 10 million people by extending the Push-Pull technology to 1 million households in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020.

Prof. Khan obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 1980. Before joining icipe, he worked with International Rice Research Institute (1983-1991), University of Wisconsin, Madison (1985-1986) and Kansas State University, Manhattan (1991-1993). Since 2009, Prof. Khan also holds a position of Visiting Professor of entomology at Cornell University. Prof. Khan is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America and the Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, London. In 2012 icipe has awarded Prof. Khan its highest honour by designating him as the first Thomas Risley Odhiambo Distinguished Research Fellow in recognition of his outstanding achievements in agricultural sciences.

In 2011, the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) named Prof. Khan as a co-winner of 2012 TWAS Prize in Agriculture for his discovery and wide scale implementation of the push-pull technology. In 2010, Prof. Khan was named  Distinguished Scientist by the Entomological Society of America. In the same, year he won the Nan-Yao Su Award for Innovation and Creativity in Entomology.

In 2010, Prof. Khan was elected as a council member of the International Congress of Entomology. In 2009 Prof. Khan was awarded the International IPM excellence award. In 2008, Prof. Khan was invited to present a plenary talk entitled “Push-Pull - a chemical ecology-based IPM strategy for small-holder farmers in Africa” during the XXIII International Congress of Entomology held in Durban, South Africa. In 2012 he was an invited speaker at UK’s Royal Society Scientific Discussion meeting on Food Security and was also a 2012 Sawicki Lecture Honoured Speaker, at Rothamsted Research, UK