Dr. Thomas Lapaka Odong is the founder and director of Data Insights Consult (http://datainsightsconsult.com ). His areas of expertise include Biometry (Applied Statistics), Research Methods, Statistical Genetics and Bioinformatics. Thomas has over 15 years of experiences in Biometry/statistical consulting and training. Dr. Odong has been very instrumental in re-tooling of academic staff and postgraduate students from east and southern Africa. Thomas has trained over 200 academic staff and post-graduate students from universities in east, central and southern Africa. He has been providing technical backstopping in areas of study design and data analysis to several local (AT-Uganda, NARO) and international (IITA, CIP, PRAPACE, FAO-Sudan) organizations and researchers. At the moment, Dr. Odong is a lecturer at the School of Agricultural Sciences; Makerere University where he teaches applied statistics, Quantitative Genetics and Bioinformatics. Dr. Odong also visited and taught (Applied Statistics, Research Methods, Quantitative Genetics and Bioinformatics) at West Africa Center of Crop Improvement (WACCI)-University of Ghana, Legon (June 2015, June 2016), African Center Crop Improvement (ACCI)-University of KwaZulu Natal (June 2014), University of Namibia (July-August 2014) and University of Zimbabwe (2007).
Dr. Odong completed his PhD in Statistical Genetics from Wageningen University, the Netherlands in 2012. One of the five papers from his PhD thesis won “The 2014 Outstanding Paper in Plant Genetic Resources award” of the American Crop Science Society (https://www.wageningenur.nl/en/newsarticle/CSSA-award-2014-for-PhD-Thomas-Odong.htm). Thomas was a post-doctoral fellow with the Laboratory of Bioinformatics at Wageningen University (2012-2013). Dr. Odong also studied at Makerere University (BSc Agric – 1st class), University of KwaZulu Natal (MSc Applied statistics/Biometry) and Michigan State University (Visiting scholar).