Prof. Francis Mulaa

Professor Francis Jackim Mulaa, PhD, is a senior academic executive, molecular biochemist, biotechnologist, and digital-transformation strategist with over 30 years of continuous academic, research, governance, and institutional-management leadership spanning Africa, Europe, North America, and multilateral scientific-policy ecosystems. He has served the University of Nairobi (UoN) in the most demanding, high-trust executive roles, including Acting Vice-Chancellor (May 2025), Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs (May 2025), and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Enterprise (August 2024 – September 2025). In these capacities, he provided institution-wide strategic leadership across academic modernization, AI-enabled digital transformation (ICT/AI), research governance, fiscal-policy compliance, human-capital development, business-process re-engineering (BPR), technology incubation, ethics enforcement, regulatory alignment, and custodianship of university records.
A Full Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at UoN since 2012, Prof. Mulaa has led the establishment, charter-readiness design, and strategic repositioning of universities and postgraduate research-training systems continent-wide. His most notable institutional-development legacy includes service as the Founding Principal of Garissa University College (2013 – 2015)—the first non-sectarian university institution in Northern Kenya—where he spearheaded faculty recruitment, corporate identity design, ICT-driven learning systems, student-data governance platforms, curriculum frameworks in biotechnology and bioinformatics, workforce-training systems, and enduring institutional partnerships later adopted under African Union (AU), European Union (EU), UNESCO-ICHEI, and private-sector education-technology collaborations.
Prof. Mulaa is a proven global-scale resource-mobilization leader, having co-led institutional funding consortia that secured approximately KSh 4.6 billion for strategic UoN infrastructure expansion, including the Engineering and Science Complex and Graduate & International Students Hostels. His fundraising leadership extends into AFRETEC, a Mastercard-Foundation linked, pan-African network integrating technology-focused universities to accelerate workforce development, interdisciplinary research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Through this initiative, he has supported and mobilized >USD 7.43 million in collaborative research funding since 2022.
His scientific innovation and commercialization portfolio comprises:
• 67 peer-reviewed journal publications
• 1 authored engineering-focused book
• 2 peer-reviewed scientific book chapters
• 3 major patent families, including pending and international PCT filings
• Current recipient of a USD 750,000 Bioinnovate commercialization grant
• Founder or co-founder of multiple biotechnology spin-offs, including:
o Green Enzyme Technologies Ltd. (Kenya)
o Candor Biosciences (Germany spin-off)
o Denovo Biolabels GmbH (Germany spin-off)
His research leadership has advanced enzyme biotechnology pipelines, malaria gametocyte-cell-cycle cultivation technology, and zero-waste enzyme-enabled leather-processing systems that strengthened East-African bioeconomy goals, reduced industrial effluent discharge, and translated scientific discovery into scalable commercial products.
His national and international policy and governance contributions include:
• Member, Ministry of Education STI Act Technical Team (2013)
• Committee member, Cabinet Memorandum on STI Policy (May 2022)
• Formulated Cabinet Memo on the Biosecurity Bill (2022)
• Harmonized Universities (Amendment) Bill (2021)
• Member, Kenya delegation, Biological Weapons Convention Meeting of State Parties, Geneva (22–25 November 2021)
• Service on specialist committees including the Kenya National Council for Science and Technology, WHO-TDR project-review panels, Pan-African university recruitment and curriculum committees, and university-industry technology-commercialization steering boards
He has supervised and mentored 30+ MSc and 30+ PhD scholars, guided interdisciplinary research-training programs, and co-led institutional digital-governance, research-translation, and workforce-development strategies for UoN and partner institutions globally.