Ifhem Chelbi

Biography

Dr Ifhem Chelbi obtained her BSc in Natural Sciences from the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis University, Tunisia in 1998. Having developed an interest in vector ecology, she started an MSc in ecology offered by the Faculty of Sciences, Tunis University with a final-year project "Bio-Ecology of sand flies from northern Tunisia". She started a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Elyes Zhioua at Pasteur Institute of Tunis where she studied the Bio-Ecology of Phlebotomus papatasi. In 2008 following the award of her PhD, she was awarded a Marie Curie International Fellowship to carry out two years postdoctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Gordon Hamilton in The School of Life Sciences, Keele University to study sex pheromones of two species of sand flies from the Old World: Phlebotomus papatasi and Phlebotomus perniciosus, vectors of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis, respectively.