Richard Samson Odingo (March 7, 1935 – June 12, 2021) was a

Kenyan The Demographics of Kenya is monitored by the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics. Kenya is a multi-ethnic state in East Africa. Its total population was at 47,558,296 as of the 2019 census. A national census was conducted in 1999, although t ...

scientist who worked as the vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when it was awarded the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

in 2007 with

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

. He held this position for more than 20 years prior. Odingo was awarded full Professorship at the

University of Nairobi The University of Nairobi (uonbi or UoN; ) is a college, collegiate research university based in Nairobi and is the largest List of universities and colleges in Kenya, university in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution dat ...

in Geography in 1987. He has been a consultant of several international agencies including multiple

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Agencies and has taught for many years at the

.AA Ouoko-Odingo, LA Ogallo, C Oludhe, RS Odingo. Climate Risks, Gender Perspectives and Livelihoods in Greater Horn of Africa Paperback. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. July 9, 2016. Richard Samson Odingo. Citation on Climate Change Impacts on Peace and Security in Africa. Available from: http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/781.University of Nairobi Profiles. Professor Richard Samson Odingo. Available from: https://profiles.uonbi.ac.ke/rodingo/files/prof._rs_odingo.pdf

Background

Richard Odingo was born on March 7, 1935, in the former

Nyanza Province Nyanza Province (; ) was one of Kenya's eight administrative provinces before the formation of the 47 counties under the 2010 constitution. Six counties were organised in the area of the former province. The region is located in the southwes ...

Kenya Colony The Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, commonly known as British Kenya or British East Africa, was part of the British Empire in Africa from 1920 until 1963. It was established when the former East Africa Protectorate was transformed into a Brit ...

.Coming from a humble background, His education advanced in part due to a government scholarship which allowed him to attend secondary school in Kakamega Town. He attended

Makerere University College Makerere University (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922, and the oldest currently active university in East Africa. It became an independent national university in ...

then

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

. He undertook his postgraduate studies at the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

where he obtained his PhD in

Agricultural geography Agricultural geography is a sub-discipline of human geography concerned with the spatial relationships found between agriculture and humans. That is, the study of the phenomena and effects that lead to the formation of the earth's top surface, ...

in 1963.

Career

In 1965 ,Odingo was appointed Lecturer in Geography at

before moving to the University College in Nairobi. At the

he climbed the ranks over the years, becoming a Senior Lecturer in 1969, Associate Professor in 1975 and Full Professor in 1987. Odingo's main research interests include

Agricultural Geography Agricultural geography is a sub-discipline of human geography concerned with the spatial relationships found between agriculture and humans. That is, the study of the phenomena and effects that lead to the formation of the earth's top surface, ...

Climatology Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospher ...

, Environmental remote sensing and

Geographic Information Systems A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not ...

(GIS). Some of his contributions include chairing the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change Activities in Kenya as well as consultancies with local and international organisations such as Economic Commission of Africa,

International Development Research Centre The International Development Research Centre (IDRC; , ''CRDI'') is a Canadian federal Crown corporation. As part of Canada's foreign affairs and development efforts, IDRC champions and funds research and innovation within and alongside developi ...

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...

, and the

United Nations Development Program The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries Poverty reduction, eliminate poverty and achieve Sustainable development, sustainable economic growth and Human development (economics), hu ...

. In 1973, Odingo participated in a Nobel workshop on Building of Dams and Schistosomiasis in Stockholm. In the late 1980s, Odingo was appointed the Vice chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a position he held until 2008. In 2007, the

IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World M ...

was awarded the

jointly with

Al Gore Jr Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." In 2009, he received the World Environment Prize (Premio Gambrinus Giusseppe Mazzotti Prize) in Italy.Gambrinus “Giuseppe Mazzotti” Prize. Prizes and Acknowledgements. Available from: https://www.premiomazzotti.it/en/prizes-and-acknowledgements

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odingo, Richard Samson 1935 births 2021 deaths Scientists from Nairobi Kenyan Luo people Kenyan scientists Alumni of the University of Liverpool Alumni of the University of London Makerere University alumni People from Nyanza Province