Choices, conviction and curiosity. These are the driving forces that have taken Wyclif Odago from the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya to be a Project Operation Specialist at BGI Bioverse and a PhD candidate in Botany at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

As the firstborn in a family of five, the decision to pursue education was particularly pivotal. He faced a fundamental choice to continue his schooling or contribute to his family’s immediate needs. “I chose to go to school. Nobody ever shaped the path I chose,” he reflects, “I think it’s a conviction just within me.”

It is fundamental choices like this that have shaped Wyclif’s life and career. They have taken him from studying science to applying science, brought him from Kenya to China, and expanded his perspectives on how he can help humanity.

“Your past does not define your future,” he says. “The choices you make are either going to destroy you or build you.” His choices have been wise.

His studies in Kenya opened his eyes to the possibilities of uniting science and agriculture. As he explains: “Society needs food. Why can’t I push myself into a direction whereby I can contribute directly to the livelihoods of the people I grew up with?”

However, it was his curiosity about why a lot of the research in high-impact scientific journals he was reading was authored by BGI that brought him to China. Amidst the high-throughput sequencers and global research teams during a summer school visit to BGI’s global headquarters in Shenzhen he knew he had found his home and his calling and led to him joining BGI Bioverse.

Wyclif Odago (BGI Bioverse) and colleague assessing Perennial rice health.

“For me, joining BGI was a very critical opportunity because I discovered [applied science] a whole new domain that I never knew existed,” he says.

It also made him realize that scientific research on its own was not enough if it could not be communicated effectively to the communities that could benefit the most. “I wanted a way to go and tell them we have a new crop variety that has improved yield, can increase your income and can solve food security.”

This conviction led to what he is now doing at BGI Bioverse and influenced his decision to undertake his doctoral studies in botany. “I want to be a good marketer who is a scientist,” he says, defining ‘marketing’ as sharing vital knowledge. “Now, I can market scientific innovations; I can express myself in scientific terms and in economic terms.”

While choices, conviction and curiosity have brought Wyclif to where he is today, they are also the drivers of his future; a future committed to applying science for the good of society and contributing directly to the lives of the people of Kenya.

“Human potential is unlimited. You can always do anything you want as long as you put your mind to it.” He says. This guiding philosophy, reinforced during his work at BGI, underpins his ambitions for himself and society.