8 Jul 24: Infrared spectroscopy course at IHI

At the beginning of the year, together with my colleagues Francesco Baldini and Mauro Pazmiño, we secured a £30,000 grant from the BBSRC IAA and the Glasgow Knowledge Exchange Fund at the University of Glasgow to organize a training workshop on infrared spectroscopy for vector control experts. The goal was to teach them our methods to accelerate malaria surveillance in Africa. The course was initially delivered online, followed by an in-person session at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) in Tanzania. Entomologists from Benin, Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, and Malawi participated in the workshop. Thanks to additional funding from PAMCA, we were also able to include two more entomologists from Kenya and Uganda.

We arrived in Tanzania on Friday, June 30, and traveled to Ifakara in an IHI minibus on Monday, July 1. From the very first day, we were fully engaged in lectures and practical sessions. The best part? The students! They were incredibly motivated, continuing to work even in their free time after classes.

The workshop was a great success, and now I’m back in Glasgow. Here are the links to the course announcement and the press release prepared by IHI, along with some photos from the past few days, capturing the experience:

Course Announcement

Press Release