Omiat Emmanuel Gilbert was born in Serere, Eastern Uganda to Mr. Daniel and Mrs. Janet Akeru. He graduated with Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Master of Science in Crop Science degrees at Makerere University (in 2004 and 2008 respectively); a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management (PGD-PPM) and Masters in Business Administration at Uganda Management Institute (in 2010 and 2018 respectively). He also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Crop Production under Saline Stress, attained from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (2015). The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) sponsored his M.Sc training. He undertook a short course in 2016 on upland rice cultivation, seed production and variety selection techniques from Tsukuba International Training Centre, Japan. In 2019, he enrolled at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana for a PhD in Plant Breeding. His PhD studies are being sponsored by the European Union Funded Intra-Africa mobility project ‘Training Scientists in Crop Improvement for Food Security in Africa’ (SCIFSA). For the PhD, he is focused on breeding rice for resistance to Rice Yellow Mottle Virus. He is a Research Officer with National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO). Previously, he served as a Research Assistant with the International Potato Centre (CIP) - Uganda Liaison Office; and also as an Agricultural Officer in the Uganda Prisons Service - Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a Plant Breeder, his career focus is to make a contribution to breeding crop varieties that exhibit tolerance or resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and he believes that the PhD training at WACCI is a blessing from God Almighty that will provide a perfect opportunity to achieving this. Furthermore, he looks up to actively collaborating with stakeholders and organizations whose interests are directed towards poverty reduction, fighting food insecurity, and improvement of the welfare of mankind.