Prof Chibundu N. Ezekiel's Research focuses on food safety, fungal diversity and taxonomy as well as mycotoxins. He is currently Studying the diversity and taxonomy of food- and agricultural soil-borne molds in Nigeria, using a robust polyphasic characterization approach.
Consequently, he is a Collector and Author of several novel fungal species including three novel aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus species (A. aflatoxiformans, A. austwickii and A. cerealis) and one member of the Fusarium fujikuroi Species Complex African Clade (F. madaense).
In order to understand mycotoxin co-exposure patterns and the impact of interventions to effectively lower potential health risks in the African populace, especially among children, he Conducts mycotoxin bio-monitoring and exposure Assessment Studies in humans. His Research also explores the role of traditional food processing methods, especially those employed in African fermented foods, in food quality and mycotoxin mitigation. He has over 100 original Research Articles and Chapters, mostly in high impact peer-reviewed journals.
Prof Ezekiel did his post-doctoral research and Erasmus Fellowship at the Institute of Bioanalytics and Agro-Metabolomics (iBAM, formerly Center for Analytical Chemistry), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Austria, and the University of Osijek, Croatia, respectively. He has Supervised undergraduate and postgraduate (MSc and PhD) students in Nigeria and Austria, and Serves as an External Examiner for Masters students at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), and for PhD candidates at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) and the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST, Tanzania).
Prof Ezekiel is an active Member of several scientific bodies locally and internationally, and a Reviewer for several high impact journals including Archives of Toxicology, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, Environment International, Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A, Food and Chemical Toxicology, Food Chemistry, Food Research International, Food Reviews International, Frontiers in Microbiology, Heliyon, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Journal of Chromatography B, Journal of Food Safety, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, The Lancet Global Health, The Lancet Planetary Health, Mycotoxin Research, Scientific Reports (a Nature publishing group journal), The World Mycotoxin Journal, and Toxicon. In addition, he is an Associate Editor (Agro-Food Safety section) of the journal Frontiers In Sustainable Food Systems. Furthermore, Prof Ezekiel is an Expert Reviewer for three funding organizations: AWARD One Planet Fellowship, International Foundation of Science (IFS) and the French National Research Agency (ANR).
He has received several awards, research and travel grants; a few to be mentioned: (a) European Union MycoRed WP 8.2.7 Short Term Visiting Research Fellowship for his doctoral studies; (b) United States Department of Agriculture/Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) special (Borlaug) travel grant; (c) the Collaborative research grant from Babcock University, Nigeria, and the Lower Austrian Government through the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (IFA-Tulln) Austria; (d) IFS Individual Researcher grant for research and equipment purchase; (e) Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) President's Fund; (f) SfAM Students' into Work grant; (g) SfAM Research Support grant; (h) ERASMUS Academic Mobility Grant.
Prof Ezekiel has also Served the continent in the position of Technical Advisor for the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa program of the African Union Commission (AUC) at its Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. As Technical Advisor at the AUC, he provided technical and policy-oriented advice on food safety/mycotoxin issues to several country governments and the continental diplomatic community.
