Legesse Wolde

Legesse Wolde-Yohannes (Amharic: ለገሠ ወልደዮሓንስ; born January 19, 1936) is an Ethiopian horticultural scientist. He cooperated with Aklilu Lemma on the discovery and research on how to use the plant endod as a means of preventing the parasitic disease bilharzia. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1989, jointly with Lemma.

Career

During Wolde-Yohannes' career, he provided an affordable solution to a fatal illness or schistosomiasis, which are fatal and often found in contents like Asia and Africa and affects more than 200 million people.

He worked with another Ethiopian doctor (Aklilu Lemma) to help produce more research on Schistosomiasis. He found that this disease was so common if Africa because it was found in Soapberry. This is a plant that is commonly used as soap in Africa, but it has a potent molluscicide. Although this was great research it only provided a cure to a small portion of people suffering from schistosomiasis. He yearned to help more people suffering from the disease, so he was persistent at finding scientists and doctors to run more field and laboratory trials. He was later able to get this plant grown to be used across multiple countries for control of Schistosomiasis.

Along with he persistent research Legesse Wolde-Yohannes was also an associate professor of biology at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. He also serves as a director of the National Endod Foundation.

in 1999 after his long career of research, Wolde-Yohannes become a senior advisor on endod and medicinal plants to the EthioAgri-CEFT Private Limited Company. He works to promote agrobotanical studies on endod and makes other medicinal plants large scale productions for local and international marketing.

Awards and recognition

In recognition of his scientific achievements, Wolde-Yohannes was awarded the Golden Medal by the University of Oslo, Norway in 1989.

He also received the Golden Medal and Certificate of Merit from Addis Ababa University in 2000.