Yemisrach Abebaw is a 2019 Borlaug Fellow.

Yemisrach Melkie Abebaw is a plant biotechnology researcher at the Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute.

She has also served as a plant tissue culture assistant researcher at the Amhara Agricultural Research Institute, as well as a student researcher in molecular genetics at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Germany.

Yemisrach received a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Jimma University in Ethiopia, a master’s in plant biotechnology from Wagningen University in the Netherlands and a PhD from Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. Her research focuses on improving crop yield using biotechnology tools and supporting the national effort in Ethiopia to improve crop productivity improvement. Yemisrach believes that plant biotechnology has the potential to resolve African challenges like climatic change, low productivity, malnutrition, pest and diseases.