Kyudai News No27 page 23/28

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Kyudai News No27

International S tudentsO Voice22Can you tell me a bit about your background?I was born and raised in South Western Uganda. I attendedKigezi High School for my secondary school education and Ilater joined Makerere University to pursue a Bachelor’s degree inAgriculture. I graduated in 2011 and I immediately gotemployed as a Tutorial assistant in the Faculty of Agriculture atUmutara Polytechnic (now University of Rwanda) and, in 2012,I fortunately was o?ered a MEXT* scholarship to study inJapan.Why did you choose Japan and Kyushu University topursue your studies?In 2006, rice crop was listed among the priority crops thatneeded attention for sustainable food production in Rwanda.However its production was still low, therefore breeding forbetter rice is what came in mind ?rst. I thought Asia would bethe best place where I could learn a lot about rice because rice istheir staple food! So when I received information about theMEXT scholarship, I left no stone unturned in order to beselected for this great opportunity. A friend of mine who workedin the JICA** o?ce in Kigali, Rwanda recommended KyushuUniversity because he knew about some professors who wereworking intensively on rice.What are you mainly studying now?I am working on necrotic lethal mutants in rice. For my PhD, Iam focusing on their genetic analysis and characterization ofthese mutations. I plan to conduct cloning of some the uniquegenes conferring these mutations in rice.How do you find your campus life at KyushuUniversity??e environment is conducive for studying and doing research.?e laboratory is well equipped and the guidance is su?cient.For my work, I am privileged to be able to grow rice on a prettylarge scale at the University farm where I can thoroughlyobserve the crop grow to maturity. Outside academics, I havebeen able to meet students and researchers from all over theworld. Life becomes more interesting when you learn somebasic Japanese that will help you communicate with everyone inand outside campus.How do you spend time after classes and duringweekends??e little free time I have I spend with family because I likeplaying with my 3 year old son. On weekends I play footballwith my colleagues at Hakozaki. Sometimes I join parties andother activities organized by student associations especiallyASKU (African students), KUMSA (Muslim students) andKUFSA (International students).What kind of job would you like to have aftergraduation?I shall resume lecturing at University of Rwanda since I am juston a study leave now. I want to conduct research especially cropimprovement focusing mainly on rice and other cereal crops likemaize. My target is breeding for drought tolerance, pest anddisease resistance and for better yield.*MEXT… Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology-Japan**JICA…Japan International Cooperation AgencyMbaraka Saidi Rumanzi (Rwanda)Graduate Student, Graduate School ofBioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences