Prof Jane Catherine Ngila is currently the Acting Executive Director of The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) since mid-July 2020. She provides leadership and strategic direction of The AAS’s programmatic and operational management whose vision is to transforms lives in Africa through science. The AAS’s tripartite mandate is; (a) recognizing excellence through the Academy’s highly prestigious Fellowship, Affiliates and Award schemes; (b) Advisory and think tank functions for shaping Africa’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) strategies and policies and; (c) implementing key STI programmes addressing Africa’s developmental challenges.

Prof Ngila is the immediate former Deputy Vice Chancellor of Riara University for Academic and Student Affairs (DVC-AA). She is also a former Deputy Director of the Institute of Oil and Gas (MIOG) under Kenya Pipeline Company, in charge of Training, Academic Programmes and Linkages. She is a Visiting Professor at University of Johannesburg, University of Nairobi, and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. She also worked at University of Johannesburg, University of KwaZulu Natal, University of Botswana and Kenyatta University.

Prof Ngila is a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences; Fellow Africa Academy of Science (AAS); Member of Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf); Member of the AAS mentorship programmes; was Co-Chair of the 2021 Commonwealth Science Conference 22-26 Feb; Mentor for Mastercard Foundation; She is a member of various chemical societies and professional organizations.

Prof Ngila has won various Awards; 2021 L’Oréal-UNESCO For International Women in Science Awards for excellence in water research; 2017 African Union Kwame Nkrumah East Africa Regional Women Scientific Awards (January 2017); 2016 South Africa (SA) Distinguished Women in Science (WISA) Awards. She has received various Awards from SA National Research Foundation, Water Research Commission, and Council for Scientific for Industrial Research.

Prof Ngila’s research work is on Analytical/Environmental Chemistry and focuses on water quality/pollution monitoring, modelling methods of water treatment based on nanotechnology, development of analytical methodologies for detecting metal pollutants and other chemical substances in water. She has published over 430 publications comprising of 215 journal articles, 16 book chapters, 18 conference proceedings, 40 keynote/invited lectures and 160 conference abstracts. Her ResearchGate Score is 39.59 with over 2,296 citations; Google Scholar h-Index of 32