Ifeoma CHIDEBE is a botanist in the Bioresources Development and Documentation Department. She obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. Botany from the University of Ibadan, and the University of Lagos, Nigeria in 2002 and 2010 respectively. In 2014, she was awarded a competitive scholarship by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation towards a Doctoral Degree at Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa.
In her professional career, she has risen through the ranks, and is currently a Principal Research officer, supervising ethno-botanical surveys covering all eight agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. She is also responsible for establishing and maintaining in-situ and ex-situ botanical gardens, herbarium management, documentation of indigenous knowledge and book publications on the medicinal flora of Nigeria. Ifeoma has interacted with Traditional Medicine practitioners, giving trainings and workshops on documentation of indigenous knowledge, good agricultural practices, hygiene and sanitization, and standardization. Ifeoma also supervises undergraduate interns from universities across the country.
She is an editorial committee member for the Nigerian Herbal Pharmacopeia and a member of the science policy team of NNMDA. An active member of the African Association for Biological Nitrogen Fixation (AABNF), South African Association of Botanists (SAAB) and the Botanical society of Nigeria.