The first scientist to discover 3 new distinct tomato virus strains associated with Tomato Yellow Leaf curl Virus (TYLCV)

Mr. Michael Kwabena Osei was born in 1978 at Mampong in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. He is an Assistant Research Scientist of the CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi, Ghana. He has published and presented paper on a wide range of vegetables including tomato, garden eggs and African Indigenous leafy vegetables.

He has also attended a number of professional trainings in renowned Institutions such as the AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center and Wageningen, the Netherlands to enhance his research capabilities. Michael is the first Ghanaian scientist to have reported the discovery of 3 new distinct tomato virus strains associated with Tomato Yellow Leaf curl Virus (TYLCV) disease in Ghana during his MSc. work. This outstanding discovery has been published in the American Plant Disease Journal.

As part of the FARA general Assembly, a science competition for young professional scientists in Africa was organized as side a meeting. 100 abstracts were received by the organizers and only 18 were selected after experts had revealed for presentations to win the top 5 awards.

Mr. Michael Kwabena Osei was among the 18 young professional scientists who were invited to compete for the top 5 awards. He won the 5th prize with a cash amount of $1000 and CTA Publications on his work in Varietal Improvement of Africa eggplants: A Morphological Characterization in some African countries.

Participating countries for the young professional in science competition included; Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroun, Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Malawi, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Congo, Benin and Tanzania.