Dr. Benson Mburu Kinyagia is a Principal Science Analyst at the Kenya’s National Commission for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NACOSTI) and is the Acting Head of Health and Biological Sciences Department. He holds a PhD in Pesticide Science from South China University of Agriculture, a Master of Science and a bachelor’s degrees from Kenyatta, Nairobi, Kenya. He has taken courses in Policy formulation, Biosafety and Biosecurity, Intellectual property Management, Environmental Management and Environmental Audit and is a member of the Environmental Institute of Kenya. He has a wide experience in Policy, legal and regulatory frameworks in the areas of Biosciences, Biodiversity, Biotechnology, Bioeconomy, Natural Products Initiative, Biosafety, Biosecurity and Synthetic Biology in Kenya. Dr Kinyagia was in the team that came up with Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expression Act of 2016 and is taking part in the documentation and digitization of Traditional Knowledge and Culture Expression and the Genetic Resources associated with them in Kenya. He was part of the team that drafted the Eastern Africa Regional Bioeconomy Strategy for Creating sustainable economic growth through innovation in 2020. Dr. Kinyagia has been part of the Kenyan Delegation to the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) since 2014. He was nominated a member of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Synthetic Biology representing the East and Central African Region between 2015 and 2018. He was a member of the Future Council on Synthetic Biology at the World Economic Forum between 2021 and 2022.
