The ICUC team

Dr. Hannah Jaenicke, Director

Hannah took on the leadership of ICUC in October 2005. She has a MSc in plant breeding and a PhD plant physiology, then developed her career in international development and plant propagation at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi 1992 - 2001.

From there Hannah moved to be the Deputy Manager of the Forestry Research Programme of the UK Department for International Development. In that position, she was closely involved in the day-to-day management of a large number of diverse and interdisciplinary research projects worldwide as well as strategy development.

She was also instrumental in the development of a training course on science communication and advocacy. Hannah speaks German, English and Spanish.

Ms. Sushilla Rajamanie, Administrative Officer

Sushilla has been with IWMI since September 1989 having joined as a Secretary in the Research Division and later promoted as Administrative Officer of the IWMI-Global Water Partnership Advisory Center.

Since April 2005, Sushilla is working for ICUC at IWMI and provides assistance to the director. She has a good knowledge of IWMI’s office systems and enjoys good rapport with all staff at IWMI.

Mr. Nick Pasiecznik, Associate Communications Officer

Nick Pasiecznik joined ICUC in July 2008, and is Associate Communications Officer, coordinating the CoDI project and editing ICUC publications amongst other duties. Nick graduated in agroforestry in 1989 and has since worked mostly on underutilised dryland tree legumes, propagation and provenance trials, collation of knowledge into databases and books, and communication of results to a broad audience. He has also worked as for CABI on their Crop Protection and Forestry Compendia and continues to work for them as an editor amongst other freelance work. Nick speaks English, French and Portuguese.

Mr Jan Wreesmann, intern

Mr Jan Wreesmann joined ICUC 1 August 2008 as intern attached to the project "Coalition to Diversify Income from Underused Crops" (CoDI) based in Vietnam at the Centre for Agrarian Systems Research and Development (CASRAD). Jan will carry out baseline studies on indigenous vegetables in Vietnam's Bac Kan Province and will base his Master Thesis at the University Goettingen, Germany, on the data he collects there. Jan is an active member of the German ASA-Program for development education and was an intern in GTZ's Sector Project “People, Food and Biodiversity” and at Abalmi Bezekhaya in Cape Town, South Africa. His 6-months internship at ICUC is funded by BMZ/GTZ.