dr. JN (James) Ssemanda

James Noah Ssemanda graduated at Makerere University Kampala, Uganda, in 2005 with a BSc. of Food Science and Technology. In the same year, he was recruited at Rwanda Standards Boards (RSB) in what would later turn out to be an extended career in food quality and safety. James Noah has since contributed to the enhancement of the quality infrastructure in Rwanda and East Africa. While at RSB, James Noah served in different roles; as a Food quality and safety inspector for local industries and imported foods, Laboratory analyst, Laboratory quality manager and as a HACCP/FSMS certification officer. James Noah is a trained auditor of conformity assessment standards and quality management systems (ISO 17025:2005 ISO 17021: 2006 and ISO 22000: 2005). In 2008, James Noah enrolled at KU Leuven, Belgium, and graduated cum laude with a Masters of Food Technology in 2010. Thereafter, James Noah returned to RSB where he became team leader in documenting the laboratory quality system in preparation for accreditation. In 2012, James Noah was a coordinator of a RSB project to develop local capacity in HACCP and GMPs in collaboration with the British Standard Institute and Trade Mark East Africa (NGO). From 2013 to 2017, James Noah pursued a PhD study entitled, ‘Towards microbial safety of fresh vegetables in Rwanda’, at the Laboratory of Food Microbiology of Wageningen University and Research (WUR), Kingdom of the Netherlands. James Noah returned to RSB and Rwanda, to further contribute to the development and implementation of microbial safety guidelines and standards along the food chain. In 2019 to date, James Noah accepted a postdoctoral position in quantitative microbial risk assessment at WUR in a project aimed at improving the microbial safety situation along the poultry supply chain in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.