The firstborn of seven children, Anne Wanjiru Muriuki helped out on her parents’ farm from an early age. Her parents both taught at the local primary school, where Muriuki excelled in math and English and was selected to attend a prestigious girls’ secondary school. “I always loved to go back to the farm during breaks to help out with the livestock or harvest coffee,” she says. “It helped me unwind.” This passion for farming must have been obvious to others as she was invited by the University of Nairobi to attend undergraduate training in agriculture. When later sponsored by the British Council for her master’s training at the University of Nottingham, she already had a son. Her supportive husband cared for him while Muriuki studied in the U.K. But she found the distance trying, so her family—which by then included a second son—joined her when she went to the U.S.A. for her PhD research in soil science. “