Zeyaur R. Khan is a Principal Scientist and Leader of Habitat Management Program at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Nairobi, Kenya and a Visiting Professor of Entomology at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Dr. Khan has dedicated his 30 year career as an agricultural scientist to advancing the science and practice of agriculture by studying and applying chemical ecology, behavior, plant-plant and insect-plant interactions to improve farm productivity to combat poverty and food insecurity in Africa.
He is responsible for the discovery and wide scale implementation of a scientific innovation through a biologically-based IPM technology called 'Push-Pull' (www.push-pull.net), providing practical solutions, and sustainable livelihoods for thousands of small-holder poor cereal-livestock African farmers. Dr. Khan obtained his Ph. D. from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 1980.
Before joining ICIPE, he worked with Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar, Pusa, India (1980-1983), the International Rice Research Institute (1983-1991), University of Wisconsin, Madison (1985-1986) and Kansas State University, Manhattan (1991-1993). Dr. Khan is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America and a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, London. He was a plenary speaker at during XXIII International Congress of Entomology in 2008.
In 2009 Dr. Khan was awarded the International IPM excellence award. In 2010 he received Nan-Yao Su award for Innovation and Creativity in Entomology and was named as a Distinguished Scientist by the International Branch of Entomological Society of America. In 2011, ICIPE designated him as a Thomas Odhiambo Distinguished Research Fellow and in the same year he was a winner of TWAS Prize in Agriculture.