It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of our former Board Chairman, Dr Roger Alexander Kirkby, who passed away on May 14^th, 2023 in the United Kingdom.

Dr Kirkby was born on April 10^th, 1946. He obtained a PhD in 1981 from Cornell University in the USA. He started his career with three years of research in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador; was a cotton entomologist in Tanzania from 1969 to 1974; and worked for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico. He was a Programme Officer for Canada’s International Development Research Centre in Nairobi, Kenya where he developed more than 20 projects across Eastern, Central and Southern Africa; worked with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in 1986, with bases first in Ethiopia, then Tanzania and finally to Uganda where he lived for 23+ years and took pride in dual Ugandan and British citizenship. Dr. Kirkby started the regional bean networks that eventually coalesced into the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), for which he was the coordinator for many years. In later years, he coordinated the CIAT global programme on People and Agro-Ecosystems.

Dr. Kirkby served as the AfrII Board Chairman from January 2019 until his death. Prior to this role, he carried out consultancies for USAID and ASARECA and also mentored various start up enterprises. He was a laudable Agricultural Research Scientist who made an invaluable contribution to research and development in Uganda, Africa and Globally. Specifically, AfrII is forever grateful for his vital contribution in sharing his vast knowledge and experience in agricultural research and innovations that greatly benefitted the Institute in its growth trajectories.

We join the family, relatives, friends and colleagues in mourning this great scientist, leader and senior citizen. He was intelligent, thoughtful, caring, warm, accessible and was someone we could always rely on. He will be missed by all who had the pleasure and privilege to know him.

Rest in everlasting peace Dr. Roger Alexander Kirkby.