Building pan-African Bioinformatics Capacity
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
Member Node
ICIPE's mission is to help alleviate poverty, ensure food security and improve the overall health status of peoples of the tropics, by developing and extending management tools and strategies for harmful and useful arthropods, while preserving the natural resource base through research and capacity building. The Centre's vision is to pioneer global science in entomology, to improve the well being and resilience of people and the environment to the challenges of a changing world, through innovative and applied research, alongside deep exploratory study, impact assessment, evaluation and sustainable capacity building.
Dr Daniel Masiga - Principal Scientist and Node PI
Mr. Andrew Espira - System Administrator
Dr. Caleb Kibet - Bioinformatician
With a PhD in Bioinformatics from Rhodes University, South Africa, Caleb Kibet is a bioinformatics researcher, a lecturer, an open science advocate, and a mentor. Caleb is currently a bioinformatician at icipe, a Mozilla Open Science Fellow, and teaches bioinformatics at Pwani University. His research interests are in regulatory genomics, where he uses machine learning and statistical modelling to understand and predict transcription factor binding sites, and its link to diseases. Caleb is also a founder of OpenScienceKE, an initiative that promotes open approaches to bioinformatics research in Kenya. Caleb is passionate about open science and reproducible bioinformatics research. He continually seeks out opportunities to spread open science, especially within the bioinformatics community in Kenya.
Mrs Kareen Wambui - Project Manager
Karen Wambui is a versatile, result-oriented professional with comprehensive experience in the management of research projects and organizing project activities. She offers administrative and financial management support to the Eastern Africa Network of Bioinformatics Training (EANBiT) project and the H3ABioNet icipe Node. This involves ensuring the smooth day to day running of project activities, monitoring budgets and working with partners to ensure effective delivery of project results within stipulated timelines and budgets. She also coordinates capacity building activities and management of student fellowship awards. She holds a Masters in Project Planning and Management from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from Kenyatta University, Kenya. She is passionate about professional development through mentorship and in strengthening governance and research management. She also enjoys singing and developing young women.
Mr Geoffrey Kimani - Software Developer
Geoffrey Kimani studied BSc. Computer Technology at JKUAT. He is a young enthusiastic software developer with varied skills from web services to mobile technology. He has a great passion for technology, specifically the application of Data Science, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to scientific problems. At icipe, he works in the Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics Unit (MBBU) team helping in the development of tools for use in sample management and supporting various bioinformatics training.
