Saliou Niassy is a Senegalese national, holder of an MSc in Natural Sciences, and a Postgraduate degree in Zoology of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. He is a Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) DAAD-ARPPIS Alumni with PhD in Agricultural Entomology. Saliou was the first Coordinator of AfroMont, A Network for Climate Change in African Mountains and served as the first Coordinator of the Land Matrix Initiative, an open tool for collecting and visualising information about large-scale land acquisitions globally. Saliou is now the Head of the Technology Unit at icipe, as an entomologist, he has keen interest in Food Security, Rural Development and Poverty alleviation in Africa. Saliou is author of several scientific papers in relevant peer reviewed journals and currently the President of the African Association of Insect Scientists AAIS.