Distinguished Professor Umezuruike Linus Opara

Professor Umezuruike Linus Opara is the DSTI-NRF SARChI Chair in Postharvest Technology at Stellenbosch University where his research looks at the postharvest handling and packaging of fruit, mainly pomegranates, with the aim to develop the local pomegranate industry through research, innovation and capacity building.

Prof Opara completed his Bachelor and Master’s degrees in engineering at the University of Nigeria and his PhD at Massey University in New Zealand. He worked as an agricultural engineer at the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization in Nigeria; a postdoctoral researcher, senior lecturer and programme director at Massey University; and associate professor and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. He also worked for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

He has published more than 345 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Trends in Food Science & Technology, Frontiers in Plant Science, and Postharvest Biology and Technology, contributed 33 book chapters and edited two books. He is editor of the book series Postharvest Science and Biotech, was an associate editor for Frontiers in Plant Science and Food and Energy Security. Over the last eight years he has supervised 16 PhD and 12 MSc students, six postdocs and one senior researcher. In 2019 and 2021, respectively, he was recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher.

In 2016 he won the African Union’s Kwame Nkrumah Continental Prize for Life & Earth Science. In 2024 he won the inaugural Africa Research Excellence Award by AFREXIMBANK/FARA.