Professor David Peter Simon Wasawo (17 May 1923 – 4 February 2014) was a Kenyan zoologist, conservationist, and university administrator.

His research subjects included the marbled lungfish and oligochaete worms, and he later served as science advisor, director, and consultant to several international development organizations.

Professor Wasawo was born 17 May 1923 in Gem, Siaya County, Kenya, to parents Petro (Peter) Onyango Osare and Ana Omondi,[1] a family of Kenyan Luo.

He focused in biology and excelled in his studies, and the Principal of Makerere provided full support for Professor Wasawo to attend Oxford University in England.

[5] Professor Wasawo retired from the University of Nairobi in 1971, and began several decades of government and administrative work with national and international organizations.

[1][4] From 1987 onward he was a development consultant to agencies including United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGADD), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank, and The African Institute for Policy Analysis.

[8] Upon his death, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga called Wasawo Kenya's first African professor, "an icon who promoted science-based education and lifted the country’s reputation internationally from early days of independence.