Recently, Professor Dr. Elsadig Musa Ahmed, Professor of Economics and Technology Management from the Faculty of Business at MMU, delivered his inaugural lecture. For his lecture, he presented a review of the concepts and dimensions of the bio-economy, taking for examples several past studies, as well as bio-economy strategies and policies, in Europe, Canada, United States of America, Latin America and Malaysia.

Bio-economy is a new stream of knowledge-based economy. It came forth due to the prevalence of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which provided the necessary hardware and software to facilitate the stream’s economic activities around the globe. Another contributor to the growth of bio-economy is the biotechnology revolution, which refers to the production of a wide range of goods and services from plant, animal and forest-based materials.

In his lecture, Prof Elsadig showed that the bio-economy is more than just grain-based bio-fuels or bio-diesel, but a highly complex subject influenced by numerous outputs of other sectors and industries.

An Inaugural Lecture is a presentation by newly-promoted or appointed Professors to inform their colleagues and the general public about their research careers, as well as the potential directions of their fields of expertise.

Prof Elsadig is a member of the university’s Senate, sits on the MMU Research and Ethics board, the Board of postgraduates, the Panel of Research Grants, and the students’ disciplinary committees.

His research interests include productivity analysis, knowledge-based economy, productivity and environment (green productivity) and bio-economy. He is the author of the book titled Green Productivity: Applications in Malaysia’s Manufacturing. Furthermore, he has published more than 100 publications in international refereed journals and presented several papers at conferences. He has supervised more than 10 Ph.D., 2 DBA, 3 MPhil and 10 MBA students, and completed 5 external research projects. He is a member of the editorial board for several journals and has been an external examiner for several postgraduate theses.

Please join us in congratulating him on his appointment and successful Inaugural Lecture.