Research Assistant I - Plant Health Theme at icipe - International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology

Overall Purpose of the Job

Assist in Insect rearing and colonies’ maintenance as well as in team experiments.

Specific Duties

• Assistance in Lepidoptera stemborers rearing of Chilo partellus, Busseola fusca, Sesamia calamistis and Sesamia nonagrioides; Helping in the preparation of artificial diet for Lepidoptera stemborers; contributing to the cleaning vials and tubes used in the mass rearing unit and IRD lab.
• Helping in parasitoid, mostly Cotesia typhae, production and participating in laboratory experiments to evaluate the feasibility of parasitoid mass rearing from the perspective of industrial production and commercialization.

Requirements/Qualifications

• KCSE with a Certificate in a relevant field
• Technical skills in insects’ manipulation
• At least 6 months of experience

Other Desirable Attributes

• Familiar with insect rearing (parasitoids) and specific experiments of the IRD team.
• Support of IRD team at icipe.
• Contribute to scientific work through colony maintenance and provision of research data.
• Insect production, mostly for Cotebio project.