Academic Staff

Dr. Theophile NIYONZIMA is an Associate Professor of Environmental Geography at the University of
Rwanda (UR), member of the teaching staff and researcher at Geography and Urban Planning
Department, School of Architecture and Built Environment, College of Science and Technology. He
completed his BSc at UR (1997); His Masters at the University of Pretoria (2001), South Africa and His
PhD (2009) at the University of Goteborg, Sweden.
He has been delivering the teaching of geography and environmental management related courses at
both undergraduate (from 1998) and post graduate levels (from 2013). Over the last 5 years, He has
been Post Graduate Coordinator at School level and Coordinating a Master program in Geo Information
Science for Environment and Sustainable Development (GI-ESD). Dr. NIYONZIMA’s research interest has
been in environmental management. He is a Lead Expert and an active member of Rwanda Association
of Professional Environmental Practitioners (RAPEP).
From the last 11 years, Dr. NIYONZIMA has been involved in the implementation of UR-Sweden funded
sub-programs including Environment and Innovation respectively. Currently, He is the Team Leader of
Innovation Sub-program hosted under the UR Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UR-CIE),
supporting the development and management of innovation. Under UR-CIE, Dr. NIYONZIMA has been
the PI of StArfrica project, promoting business start-ups from the field of Science. The project in
question is implemented in partnership between the University of Rwanda and the University of Koblenz
Landau (UKL) from 1st September 2020. Lastly, in support of the UR-CIE, Dr. NIYONZIMA is coordinating
the Swiss African Science and Business Innovator (SASBI), a framework of collaboration between
Switzerland and 5 African Countries including Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria.