Luke O. Olang, Kenya

Curriculum Vitae

Luke Olang is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering Sciences and Technology of the Technical University of Kenya. He holds a PhD from University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Austria. His research interests are in water resource management studies that attempt to understand hydrological variability within the coupled terrestrial water, energy and agricultural cycles. This includes the intersection of human activities; and translation of the derived knowledge to improve management of the concerned bio-geo-chemical systems. He is involved in a number of research initiatives, including a project funded by the Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research (APPEAR) on 'Capacity building on the Water-Energy-Food security Nexus through Research and Training in Kenya and Uganda (CapNex)'. Luke Olang has published in the larger area of climate change adaptation within the water resources sector, and is presently leading regional initiatives towards enhanced and integrated drought risk management within the Greater Horn of Africa region.

Reflection

My educational and training experience in Austria provided a good opportunity to scale-up and leverage my capabilities in a multi-cultural research setup. This led to more certainty in my work, while expanding the bandwidth of professional network and expert-base for prospective partnerships requisite today in projects development and management. The opportunity to relate with various researchers encouraged confidence building, particularly when one recognises the effort distinguished researchers make to package their work for global visibility. My research visibility has created ancillary opportunities around my professional life; enabling coaction on research that addresses day to day challenges affecting the environment and our society. An important lesson learnt from the experience includes productive situational leadership that is involved in teamwork. That is, allowing the right team with core competencies for a given situation to thoughtfully lead the situation. Unfortunately, most systems are too slow to adjust to this new paradigm.