Each month, beginning February 2022, a researcher is featured giving briefs on research undertaken/undertaking.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – JAN 2023
Prof. Mugendi K. M’Rithaa is a transdisciplinary industrial designer, educator, researcher and consultant presently the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration, Planning and Finance) at Machakos University, Kenya.
He is the Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Cloud Computing for Sustainable Development. Additionally, Mugendi is the President Emeritus and Senator of the World Design Organization (WDO) – having been the first African President in the history of the WDO. Much of his work with the WDO focuses on the importance of supporting the aspirations of designers worldwide in the [industrial] design profession’s collective quest to resolve wicked problems in diverse contexts.
Machakos University (MksU) was recently awarded the rare and prestigious UNESCO Chair on Cloud Computing for Sustainable Development within the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme commencing in January 2023 for an initial period of four years. Under this design-led transdisciplinary research project, Machakos University will lead a dynamic private-public partnership that will address five sub-themes, namely: Health and Well-being; Agriculture and Food Security; Education and Training; Climate Resilience and Environmental Sustainability; and Space Science and Surveillance.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – Dec 2022
Dr. Mercy Ndalila is a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Environment at Machakos University. She holds a PhD in Fire Ecology at the University of Tasmania, Australia and a Joint MSc. in Geo-information Science from two European universities.
At Machakos University, she is working on a trans-disciplinary project that involves researching on wildfire regimes in Mt Kenya forest. She is specifically using geospatial tools to map fire severity patterns from recent fires, analyze historical fire weather, and compare with projected weather for Mt Kenya region. The aim is to understand whether climate change has an effect on the frequency of wildfires.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – Nov 2022
Dr. Cornelius Okello is a Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Sciences, School of Agriculture, Environment and Health Sciences. He is a registered member of Environmental Institute of Kenya and a Lead Expert, Environmental Impact Assessment. He is an environmental scientist who specializes in freshwater resource management and climate change particularly in coastal areas.
He has recently complemented a project in collaboration with the African Climate & Development Initiative (University of Cape Town) titled A Co-designed, Integrated Framework for Adaptive Management of Freshwater in Coastal Areas Under the Threat of Climate Change: A Case Study of Lamu, Kenya. Currently, he is working on a project to leverage use of nature-based solutions to address environmental challenges, especially in the water sector.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – Oct 2022
Dr. Veronica Okello is a lecturer at the Machakos University (MKsU), Department of Physical Sciences and School of Pure and Applied Sciences. She has a Ph.D. in Analytical Environmental Nano remediation Chemistry from State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton.
Her research interests revolve around, the development of analytical methods and monitoring materials. Specifically, nanoscale and nano-enabled materials/polymers that offer new possibilities for the development of novel remediation and environmental sensing/monitoring technologies for water, soil and air pollutants.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – Sep 2022
Dr. Christabel Muhonja is currently a lecturer at the Machakos University, department of Biological Sciences and School of Pure and Applied Sciences where she is also the Examinations and Timetabling Coordinator. She has a PhD degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the Pan African University-Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation. She also holds a Master of Science in Microbiology from JKUAT and a Bachelor of Education Science from Egerton University.
Her current research interests involve application of microorganisms and microbial metabolites in Biotechnology, Agriculture, Medicine and Environment. This work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as PLOS One, International Journal of Microbiology and Journal of Toxicology (Hindawi) among others which can be accessed from https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4O3MLhAAAAAJ&hl=en
FEATURED RESEARCHER – AUG 2022
Dr. Mark Kimathi is currently a Senior Lecturer of Applied Mathematics at Machakos University. He acquired a Ph.D in mathematical modelling with differential equations and scientific computing from University of Kaiserslautern, Germany in 2012. He has ten years of experience in mathematical modelling and scientific computing of dynamics of infectious diseases, fluid flows, and vehicular traffic flow among others, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=R5Gfb1oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
He is currently a KEMRI-Welcome Trust research fellow working on a Kenya-specific optimal strategy of allocating the limited COVID-19 vaccine doses such that the overall disease burden and the cost of implementing such a strategy is minimized.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – JULY 2022
Dr. Ir. Tindih S Heshborne, currently lectures at the Machakos University where he is also the Chair, Department of Biological Sciences at the School of Pure and Applied sciences. He has a PhD degree in Bioscience engineering of Bovine immunological systems for the control of protozoan parasites (From Katholieke Universiteit Lueven (KULeuven) and Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine-Antwerpen-Belgium) & ILRI-Nairobi-Kenya. Besides he holds a Bachelor degree in Biochemistry & Chemistry from JKUAT-Kenya and Masters of Science in Molecular Biology focusing on animal health, production and drugs prophylaxis-Vrije Universiteit Brussels, VUB).
His current research interests cut across the immunological analysis of vaccine and drugs molecular candidates in Covid-19, Snake-venom, Malaria and Cancer.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – JUNE 2022
Eng. (Dr.) Charles Mwaniki, is a senior lecturer at Machakos University in the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology. He is also a registered by Engineers Board of Kenya as a professional Electrical and Electronics Engineer.
Currently he is doing a research project entitled: BARIDI SANA – High performance micro-2-phase cooling system for Space Applications.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – MAY 2022
PROJECT: A Situational Analysis of Intervention Measures in The Management of HIV/AIDS Prevalence in Kisii County
FUNDER: National Research Fund (NRF)
AMOUNT AWARDED: 10 Million
STATUS: Ongoing
Project Summary
At the inception of the project, Kisii County had one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the country. According to the county’s HIV/AIDS strategic plan 2016, the disease burden stood at (8.5%) among women and (7.3%) among men. The high prevalence rate was attributed to stigma, challenges faced by HIV specialists, cultural practices, poverty among others.
To generate data for future interventions, this project set out to carry out a situational analysis of intervention measures in the management of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Kisii County.
Results of the project will help in capacity development involving key stakeholders, policy proposals, development of a website for stakeholders, a digital herbarium, publications and conference papers.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – APRIL 2022
Machakos University, in partnership with University of Bergen (Department of Global public health and primary care), Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Norwegian University of Science and Technology won grant to implement Water ESSENCE Africa whose theme is creating synergy to meet the global challenges.
Other collaborators include Addis Ababa University(www.uu.edu.et.), University of Ghana(https://www.ug.edu.gh/), University for Development studies(https://uds.edu.gh/), University of Nairobi (https://www.uonbi.ac.ke/), University of Rwanda (https://ur.ac.rw/), University of Juba (https://uoj.edu.ss/) and Makerere University(https://www.mak.ac.ug/). The project runs for six years (2021-2026) at a budget line of KES 15590924.7687514 (NOK 1401000.49972)
The main project objectives are capacity building for both the University and staff and Curriculum development with a bias in water related program.
FEATURED RESEARCHER – MARCH 2022
Dr. Elizabeth Ndunda holds a PhD in Chemistry (Ulm University, Germany), MSc Chemistry (University of Nairobi, Kenya) and BSc. Chemistry (University of Nairobi, Kenya). She is currently a Lecturer at Machakos University, Department of Physical Sciences in the School of Pure and Applied Sciences.
Her research work focuses on developing novel methods based on molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for determination of organic pollutants in the environment. This work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Separation Science, Analyst, Journal of Molecular Recognition, Analytical Chemistry, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Analytica Chimica Acta among others (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6656-5413) and presented in various national and international conferences.
Her current research aims at developing a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor based on MIPs for detection of carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the environment.
FEATURED RESEARCHER -FEBRUARY 2022
Dr. Patricia N. Muendo is a Researcher in Pure and Applied Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. in Aquaculture from Wageningen University (Netherlands), Masters in Hydrobiology from the University of Nairobi, and a Bachelor of Science (Botany/Zoology) also from the University of Nairobi.