Centre for Applied Entomology and Parasitology

My first degree was a BSc in Applied Sciences (Applied Parasitology) from the University of Science of Malaysia working on fish parasites as my undergraduate project. My interest in vectors started when I joined the University of Malaysia Sarawak as a research assistant in a surveillance project on container breeding mosquitoes in Sarawak, Malaysia. Then, I continued with my MSc in Vector Biology in the same university to study the differences between Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti (Linnaeus) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse)(Diptera: Culicidae) in their breeding ecology and feeding patterns in three areas in Sarawak. Following my graduation, I worked as a research officer and a year later I was appointed as a lecturer in University Malaysia Sarawak. I was awarded a Doctorate Training Award by the Malaysian Government and am currently, pursuing my PhD in Keele University under the supervision of Dr Gordon Hamilton and Prof. Richard Ward, investigating the presence and source of sex and oviposition pheromones in Phlebotomus argentipes. The findings of those pheromones are important to understand the biology and ecology of that sandfly and possibly could be used in field monitoring and control programmes of sandflies in the future.