Prof. Greg Cuomo's Visit

The Kisii University recently hosted Prof. Greg Cuomo An Associate Dean for Extension and Outreach in the University of Minnesota, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences USA.

Following the Principals visit to the University of Minnesota in September 2011, the University of Minnesota expressed a strong interest in expanding the existing collaboration to other areas of specialization, specifically in achieving one of the Kisii University’s strategic objectives of establishing, networking and strengthening partnership with strategic institutions in learning, research and innovation.

During the visit, Prof. Greg Cuomo made a courtesy call on the Principal where a range of possible areas of collaboration were discussed and he further noted that the University is in transition period with an aim of soon becoming a fully fledged University. During the courtesy call, Prof. Greg Cuomo commended the collaboration between the two universities and its resultant positive contribution towards training and research at our University. He looks forward to an expanded collaboration in areas of agricultural research.

Kisii University set up a team who met and discussed possible collaboration between the two universities. During the meeting, it was proposed that staff exchange should be in relevant disciplines of mutual interests. In addition, it was recommended that staff should collaborate in writing research proposals for competitive international grants, joint mounting and training of staff development programs. It was also recommended that Kisii University to come up with a teleconferencing facility. The two teams had active discussions on how the two universities could work together for a greater impact on developing programs in relevant fields for ease of student and staff exchange programs.The sessions were an eye opener to all participants in terms of what can be achieved when different disciplines pull together. We all hopes that this will lay the ground work for a robust interdisciplinary collaboration.

The discussion sessions were hosted by the Director (R&E), Prof. Anakalo Shitandi who expressed his enthusiasm and support for the interdisciplinary research collaboration. The University of Minnesota has a standing research collaboration with Kisii University.