Professor Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo is born on 03rd May 1974 at Savalou in Republic of Benin. He is, an agronomist and forester with a special interest in non-timber forest products. He hold a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences and is a Full Professor of Conservation genetics, Forest ecology and Ethnobotany at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Republic of Benin. He doubles as a visiting Professor at Université Félix Houphouët Boigny in Côte d’Ivoire, University of Costa Rica in Costa Rica and University of Florianopolis in Brasil. He has been awarded more than 21 research grants and 9 at regional or international levels. He is a talented and well established scientist, consistently motivated by the need to produce innovative research and technologies for positive change in the society. He is belonging more than 10 international scientific groups (e.g ISHS, Society of ecological restoration, IUCN-SSC-CWRSG, IPBES, IUCN-WCPA, etc..) He is currently the Permanent Secretary of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences at the University of Abomey-Calavi, and also the Coordinator of the Doctoral Training in Natural Resources at the University. To- date, he has (co)authored at total of 203 scientific articles published in international peer review journals, 26 books and/or book chapters; 11 proceedings and 9 technical reports. He won 11 international prizes some of which include: the Ebi Kimanani Memorial Fellowship Award in 2008 (Peru), the Heinz and Johannes Prize for the best scientific research paper on ecology in Africa in 2009 (Germany), and a prize of the Belgian Development Cooperation in 2010 and now the 2019 Young African Researchers Award. He has graduated >100 BSc, >100 MSc. and 8 PhD students with 08 MSc & 08 PhD currently registered and hosted 4 post-doc. He is in great demand to sit on committees of other under and post-grads (>60), and as external examiner for MSc/PhD (80/22) in Benin, Belgium, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda and South Africa. Three words that describe him are rigor- perseverance-hard work.