Research Associate - Entomology at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop protocols for trapping mosquitoes with the project team, putting into consideration factors that affect mosquito density such as land use/land cover, climatic factors and availability of hosts
• Maintain an inventory of traps, other sampling equipment, chemicals (such as attractants) and reagents that are required for mosquito sampling. The inventory will be needed to replenishments with time
• Deploy traps in selected sites within the project areas as per the field sampling protocols developed
• Harvest mosquito and other vectors trapped, characterize them by species based on morphological and molecular characteristics
• Process mosquitoes collected for laboratory analyses to determine their sources of blood meal and arbovirus infection levels
• Enter the various data collected in an on-line database that will be developed for storing data from the project
• Participate in the development of technical reports and manuscripts that will utilize the data generated from the vector surveys implemented
• Perform any other related duties as may be requiredPerform any other related duties as may be assigned

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in science, Zoology, BSc Technology and Innovation or a related field
• Demonstrated experience of at least two years in field research, specifically on trapping mosquitoes, identifying them by species using morphological keys, analysing data collected and writing back to office reports
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English
• Good knowledge and experience on standard software for managing and analysing data including Microsoft Excel, STATA, R or Python among others
• Ability to manage their own workload, develop workplans and seek support when needed
• Excellent written and spoken English