Prof Dr Verdiana Grace MASANJA

African Mathematical Union, East Africa Region

Prof. Dr. Verdiana Grace Masanja is Professor Emerita at the School of Computational and Communication Science and Engineering (CoCSE), Nelson-Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), Tanzania where she is also: (i) Deputy Leader of the Data Driven Innovation for Food and Nutritional Security (DDI) Incubation Centre; (ii) teaching two courses to PhD students and two courses to Masters students; (iii) Supervising 10 PhD students and 7 Masters students; (iv) Chairperson of the Mathematical Modelling and Computational Science and Engineering Research Group; and (v) Principal Investigator (PI)/ NM-AIST coordinator of the Working life interaction in modelling and data-skills (WOLIMODS) Project of a consortium of 6 Universities (3 from Finland and 3 from Africa). On the country level, Professor Masanja is the chairwoman of the Board of Governors of Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI) for the period 5.1.2023 to 4.1.2026, appointed by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania. She is also a member of the Basic Sciences Committee of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH). On the continent level, she is the Vice President of Africa Mathematical Union (AMU) for the period 2022-2026, responsible for the Eastern Africa Region (Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda). Professor Masanja retired on 28th February 2022 as Full Professor of Mathematics from the CoCSE School at NM-AIST. While at NM-AIST she was a leader of taskforces that developed important documents: 4 documents for the Resources Mobilisation and Investment, the Corporate Strategic Plan and its Business Plan, the Quality Assurance Tools and the reviewed Quality Assurance Policy. She led a search committee for deans of two schools. Professor Masanja has been in academic teaching and research for more than 47 years since April 1976, and at a professorial rank for 23 years since July 2000 as Associate Professor and as of March 2006 as Full Professor. She also has been in Higher Education management for 24 years since 1994 without interruption until 2017, where 12 of these years she was Director responsible for postgraduate studies, research, and innovation and 2 of these years she was Senior Advisor responsible for strategic development, research and innovation (a senior manager position equivalent to Deputy Vice Chancellor). She has taught in Universities in Tanzania and Rwanda on full-time basis, and as part-time or visiting professor in Finland, Kenya, Uganda and in collaborative international programmes. She has taught mathematics at undergraduate, masters, and PhD level, supervised to completion 20 Masters, 8 PhD, and 2 Postdoc students and is supervising 7 masters and 10 PhD ongoing students. She has been external examiner in many Universities in East and Southern Africa. She has examined PhD and Masters Theses/ Dissertations in the Netherlands, India and in African Universities and she is well published extensively. She is an expert textbook writer, has trained writers of Mathematics Textbooks, additionally, she has been an editor and chief editor of books and Journals. Professor Masanja has been a role model in Mathematics, especially for female students and staff, throughout her academic career. She attained her PhD in Germany in January 2026 as the first woman in Tanzania to get the PhD. She has contributed tremendously in promoting mathematics in the region and promoting girls' and women participation in Mathematics and STEM in Africa and specifically in Tanzania and Rwanda. To that effect, she has earned awards in recognition of those efforts. Additionally, Prof. Verdiana Masanja initiated or coordinated 28 major and impactful projects and programmes, which have made a big impact in academia, society and industry and she has been a leader of national and international organisations and coordinator and advisor of projects for more than 32 years.