Taxonomic botanist and science editor, also teacher; member of Editorial team of the 8 volume Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea; lived in Ethiopia since 1968; married to Dr Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, together set up the Institute for Sustainable Development in 1996 to explore and promote an ecological approach to supporting Ethiopian smallholder farmers restore and maintain soil fertility based on cycling of nutrients via composting, maintain the best of their own traditional knowledge and practices, including their farmers' varieties, enhanced through introducing technologies based on empirical and modern scientific knowledge; now a founder member of the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative for Africa.