ARPPIS PhD scholar

Kochelani Saili

Research Project: Evaluating the Feasibility and Impact on Malaria Transmission of Community-Based House-Screening as an Additional Vector Control Intervention in Zambia Research goals: To assess efficacy of house-screening and Long-Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) in reduction of indoor mosquito-vector densities compared to sole-use of LLINs in malaria control. Also, assess the socio-economic incremental costs and benefits of Integrated Vector Management. Host project and funding:  AFRO-II Project funded by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO-AFRO) through icipe and the National Malaria Elimination Centre (NMEC), Zambia. Supervisors: Prof. Clifford Mutero Dr. Ulrike Fillinger and Dr. Menale Kassie. Bio: Kochelani Saili holds a BSc (Ecology major) and a MSc. in Entomology, both from the University of Zambia.

Edwin Ogola

Research project:  Evaluating the ecology of relevant arboviruses in blood-feeding arthropods in selected ecologies of Kenya. Research goals:  Monitor the transmission of arthropod-borne viruses in different disease vectors including biting midges, mosquitoes, ticks, and sandflies as part of risk assessment and an effort to improve the current diagnosis and control approaches.  Host project and funding:  Identification of virus transmission networks, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). Bio:  Edwin holds a BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and an MSc in Biochemistry all from Egerton University, Kenya. Supervisors:  Dr. David Tchouassi, Prof. Rosemary Sang and Prof. Baldwyn Torto (icipe).

Faith Isikhuemen Ebhodaghe

Research project: Characterising the impact of community-driven tsetse and trypanosomiasis control in the human-livestock-wildlife interface of Shimba Hills, Kwale County, Kenya Research goals: To evaluate comparative impact of conventional tsetse and trypanosomiasis (T&T) control tools and a novel T&T control technology, the Waterbuck-derived tsetse-repellent compound in the Shimba Hills, Kwale County, Kenya.  Host projects and funding:  Upscaling community-driven tsetse and trypanosomiasis control (Biovision Foundation) and Integrated Biological Control Applied Research Project, Tsetse component (European Union). Bio: Faith holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from Ambrose Alli University, Nigeria and a Master of Philosophy in Entomology from the University of Ghana, Legon. He is a member of the Zoological Society of Nigeria.  Supervisors: Drs. Michael Okal and Beatrice Muriithi Advisors: Drs. Dan Masiga and Tobias Landmann

Sokame Bonoukpoè Mawuko

Research project title:  Attraction to maize plants and oviposition of female moths within a community of lepidopteran maize stemborers. Mr.  Sokame, Bonoukpoe Mawuko is a PhD research fellow supervised by Dr. Paul-Andre Calatayud; Dr. Ayuka T. Fombong and Prof. Baldwyn Torto (icipe).  His research interests include infochemical and maize Lepidoptera stem borers oviposition choice relationship research. He joined Lycee 2 Fevrier of Lome (2002 to 2005) for ordinary and advanced secondary education, respectively. He graduated at “Ecole Superieur d’Agronomie (ESA) of Université de Lome” in 2012 as Agricultural Engineer majoring in plant protection.

Pierre Ndayisaba

Research project title:  Climate change mitigation through improved soil health; carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation under the push-pull technology as a case study. Research goals: Evaluating the push – pull technology ability to mitigate the climate change through improvement of soil health with a focus on carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation. Supervisors:  Dr. Charles Midega, Prof. Z.R. Khan (icipe) and Dr. Shem Kuyah, Dr. Peter N. Mwangi (JKUAT). Bio:  Ndayisaba obtained an advanced diploma in soil and water resource management from ISAE – Busogo, and a MSc in environmental sciences from Kenyatta University, Nairobi – Kenya. His MSc research was about the ‘Effects of inorganic and organic fertilizers on nutrient uptake, soil chemical properties and crop performance in maize based cropping systems in eastern province of Rwanda’.

Alfonce Mutibha

Research project title:  Understanding the bioecology of edible grasshoppers in East Africa for the development of improved rearing and harvesting technique. Alfonce Leonard Mutibha is an ARPPIS PhD fellow supervised by Dr(s) Sevgan Subramanian, Sundey Ekesi, Komi Fiaboe & Fathiya Khamis from icipe and Prof. Samuel Kyamanywa and Dr. James Peter Egonyu from Makerere University. Alfonce research interest include the Bioecology of edible grasshoppers. His currently doing morphological and molecular identification of edible grasshoppers’ species in Kenya and Uganda, identification of host plants of edible grasshoppers through molecular analysis of their gut content, isolation and identification of entomopathogens of edible grasshoppers, development of rearing protocols of edible grasshoppers and development of improved wild harvesting technique of edible grasshoppers funded by EntoNutri project and DAAD. Bio:  Alfonce holds a Bachelor degree in Agriculture general and MSc. Crop Science from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Morogoro, Tanzania. He is experienced in Insect Pest Management (IPM) in rice and cotton crops. He has authored one manuscripts in stem borers of rice crop and has presented in various scientific meetings nationally and internationally.

Caroline Wanjiku Kung'u

Research project title:  Development of surveillance tools for males of select Afrotropical disease vectors.   Research goals: her research is focused on exploiting mosquito-plant interactions for development of surveillance and/or control tools for arbovirus and malaria vectors.   Supervisors:  Prof. Baldwyn Torto, Dr. David Tchouassi (icipe) and Prof. Catherine Sole, Prof. Christian Pirk (university of pretoria)   Bio: Caroline joined ICIPE in 2011 as a DRIP MSc. Scholar to work on semio-chemicals   in the   tri-trophic interaction between the cashew tree, a heteropteran pest and its natural enemy. In 2013, after obtaining her MSc.  she moved to human health research where she worked as a research assistant in   a collaborative project between ICIPE and partners from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich) looking to unravel signature odor markers of malaria infections in humans. She holds an MSc.  in Biochemistry and a BSc. In Zoology both from Kenyatta University, Kenya.

Souleymane Diallo

Research Project:  Coding of tsetse repellents by olfactory receptor repertoire: towards the improvement and development of new novel tsetse repellents. Souleymane Diallo is a PhD research fellow under African Regional Postgraduate Programme in Insect Science (ARPPIS), 2016. He obtained his first degree, Bachelor of Education (Science) in Biology at university of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, he did his Msc degree in Fundamental and Applied Entomology. His Masters research project focused on "Quality control of sterile males provided in the form of irradiated pupae to the regional projects of the tsetse eradication ", which was carried out at the Centre International de Recherche-Développement sur l’Elevage en zone Subhumide (CIRDES). Souleymane worked as a consultant in the insectary of the CIRDES where is was in charge of Tsetse flies mass rearing and the quality control of the sterile pupae. In 2016, he did training on tick taxonomy, tick mass rearing, and tick resistance/sensibility tests at the laboratory of acarology (CIRDES). Currently, Souleymane is undertaking his PhD in olfactory coding in tsetse flies. The aim of his PhD project is to understand the olfactory pathways by which tsetse repellents and attractants operate in order to develop a sustainable push-pull system for tsetse flies control.  Supervisors:  Dr Merid G.N., Dr Masiga D., Prof Baldwyn T. (icipe) and Prof Alan Christoffels (University of Western Cape, South Africa).

Yisa Bong

Research Project title: Characterization of the nutritional, antinutritional and therapeutic values of some selected edible insects from East Africa. Research goals:  focuses on the nutritional and therapeutic aspects of edible insects commonly consumed in East Africa. Edible insects have been proposed by many researchers as a novel food source that could contribute in solving the problem of malnutrition and food insecurity plaguing especially the developing world. Hence it is of interest to nutritionally characterize these edible insects and seek ways of preserving them so that they could be available for human food. Host project and funding:  BMZ and DAAD. Supervisors:  Prof Baldwyn Torto, Dr Sevgan Subramanian,Dr Sunday Ekesi, Dr Komi Fiaboe (icipe) and Prof Gyebi K. Doudu, Prof Mohammad Naushad Emmambux (University). Bio:  Yisa completed his undergraduate studies and obtained his MSc in biochemistry at the Univeristy of Yaunde.

Gladys Mosomtai

Research project: Epidemiology of coffee pathosystem in the smallholder context on the Aberdare range, Kenya: modelling the impact of agro-ecological factors for coffee pest and disease dynamic prediction. Research goals: The research will focus on understanding the dynamics of coffee pests and diseases and their distribution across different agro-ecological zones at farm level and upscaling it to regional level to inform best practices to alleviate farmers from further loses. Host project and funding: Increasing Murang’a Union farmers’ income by improving their coffee’s quality and productivity and by establishing quality recognition signs project, funded by Agence Française de Développement (AFD). Bio: Gladys holds a BSc in Environmental Planning and Management from Kenyatta University, Kenya, and an MSc in Geospatial Information Systems and Remote Sensing from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, both in Kenya. She is a member of International Geospatial Society and Geographic Information Knowledge Network. Supervisors: Dr Regis Babin (Cirad/icipe), and Dr Tobias Landmann (icipe).

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