Geoffrey is the Founder and CEO of SynBio Africa, the first and largest community-building and policy advocacy initiative for synthetic biology and biosecurity in Africa. He has over ten years of experience working across government, industry, academia, and multilateral organisations, including the United Nations. He spent more than eight years at the WHO Polio and Measles Regional Reference Laboratory at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, where he worked on polio and measles disease surveillance and outbreak response.
He led the implementation of the SynBio Africa Global Catastrophic Biological Risks Initiative, which brought together over 100 key regional stakeholders from across Africa to discuss pandemic preparedness on the continent. During his tenure with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he actively participated in and provided technical advice on COVID-19 testing protocols, as well as guidance on laboratory preparedness to support COVID-19 testing within the UN Mission in South Sudan laboratory network and among national counterparts.
He has served as a member of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity’s Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Synthetic Biology; an external biosafety expert with the Elizabeth R. Griffin Program at Georgetown University; a rapporteur with WHO Geneva supporting Uganda in piloting the implementation of the WHO framework for the governance of somatic human genome editing; and a member of the OECD Global Forum on Technology (GFTech) expert focus group on synthetic biology. He is a Non-Executive Director (Board Member) of the Global Health Security Network, a 2025 Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity (ELBI) Fellow, a 2025 Vox Future Perfect 25 Honouree, and a 2023 SynBioBeta Impact Awardee.
He holds an MSc in Life Sciences, an MA in International Affairs and Diplomacy, formal training in Science Policy and Advocacy for STEM Scientists, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Queensland, Australia.
