About Us

Dr Robert Sloss obtained his Doctorate on the Biochemistry of Plant Diseases from Imperial College, London University.   His career has spanned Technical, Research and senior commercial roles in Multinational companies including Pharmacia, ICI, Zeneca and Avecia.  These roles included Technical Management, International Research and Development Manager and Marketing Director.   He gained considerable experience in New Product development from idea generation to launch.   He spent 9 years as Portfolio Manager at IVCC, with the aim is to develop innovative approaches to control vector borne diseases by targeting the disease carrying vectors.   This gave him experience in using donor funding to work with Industrial and academic partners to develop innovative new products.   Robert is now retired and runs his own consultancy business.  

Natalie Lissenden is working with Innovation to Impact (I2I) to review and validate methods employed to evaluate current and future vector control tools. She joined LSTM’s Vector Biology Department as a Research Assistant in 2015. Natalie research focuses on Anopheles mosquito behaviour, in particular their response to new tools for malaria vector control. Natalie obtained a BSc in Biological Science from the University of Liverpool in 2012 and an MSc in Biology and Control of Parasites and Disease Vectors from LSTM in 2014. Her doctoral research explored the sub-lethal effects of pyrethroid exposure on Anopheles gambiae s.l. life-history traits, behaviour, and the efficacy of insecticidal bednets, and drew upon over 10 months of fieldwork in southwestern Burkina Faso.

Rosemary leads the Methods Validation workstream of I2I. She is working with the Technical Team to identify areas of methodological weakness in the development and evaluation of vector control tools and seek to address these gaps through the development of consensus protocols, experimental validation of new and existing methods, and discussion with stakeholders to map out key areas of concern and generate consensus on solutions. She is a Programme Manager in the Vector Biology Department of LSTM, working with Hilary Ranson on research into insecticide resistance mechanisms and their impacts on vector control, and with industry partners to screen and evaluate the potential of new insecticides, formulations and products as well as application equipment and related technologies.

Giorgio is a Research Assistant working for I2I and also the Hilary Ranson Group. Their focus is on method development and optimisation for new and existing vector control tools. They began their career graduating from Liverpool University in 2015 with a BSc (Hons) Tropical Disease Biology. They then went on to complete an MSc in Molecular Biology of Parasites and Disease Vectors at LSTM. Since completing their MSc they have continued to undertake scientific research in the field of vector biology at LSTM. Through this they have helped contribute to numerous research projects and publications looking at developing new methodologies for novel and repurposed chemistries in vector control. They also help run the LSTM Vector Biology Department twitter account (@LSTMVector) and is a leading member of the LGBTQ+ committee where they serves as their representative on the school wide Equality Diversity and Inclusion committee.

Jack Gillespie joined LSTM’s Vector Biology Department as a Research Technician in 2021. Jack’s projects with Innovation to Impact (I2I) are focussed on validating current methods and testing potential vector controls. Jack was awarded an MSci Evolutionary Biology at the University of Exeter in 2019. Jack’s master’s thesis was on testing antibiotic dosing regimens, using a pulsed dosage strategy to exploit fitness costs to prevent antibiotic resistance. He has previously worked in the NHS as a Medical Lab Assistant.

Mark Hoppé is a Public Health entomologist with 30 years’ experience of research, development and advocacy in agricultural and public health insect control. He is currently involved in the development of novel solutions for the control of insects of public health importance, working for Syngenta in Switzerland. Mark studied Crop Protection at Bath University, and holds an MBA in technology management. He is also the chair of the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee’s (IRAC) Public Health team, co-chairs the Roll Back Malaria VCWG’s Integrated Vector Management (IVM) and Insecticide Resistance Management (IRM) workstream, and is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.

Christopher Kanema works for the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) as Principal Inspector and Heads the Unit responsible for sound management of Pesticides and Toxic Substances in Zambia. He has coordinated several projects in Zambia on sound management of chemicals in general and pesticides in particular. He is currently the focal point for the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade as well as the focal point of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. In his capacity as a focal point, he has represented Zambia in the Conference of the Parties meetings. He is a member of several Technical Committees including the Southern African Pesticides Regulators Forum (SAPReF) and I2I.

Marion Law, the Team Lead of the Vector Control Products Team, is a microbiologist with research experience in the area of antibiotic and microbial resistance. Before joining WHO three years ago, she held a number of senior executive positions in Health Canada which included, leading health product evaluation, science policy development and regulatory science operations in the areas of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, control drugs and substances, blood products, and biotechnology drugs as well as pesticides and pest control products. As a previous Chief Registrar of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency of Health Canada, and more recently the Director General of the Therapeutic Products Directorate, Health Canada she has extensive international experience including as head of the Canadian delegation to NAFTA and also to the OECD where she was the Chair of the OECD Working Group on Pesticides.

David Malone, Senior Programme Officer for Vector Control at the BMGF, is an entomologist, with research experience in the area of insecticide resistance and vector biology. Before joining BMGF, David held a role as Senior Business Development Manager for Sumitomo Chemical and prior to this was Technical Manager at the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) in Liverpool. Previously he worked as a civilian medical entomologist for the British Military, at the Cayman Islands Mosquito Research and Control Unit and as Director of Research and Technical Services for the Florida based company Adapco.

Dr Corine Ngufor is Assistant Professor of medical entomology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and lead scientist at the CREC/PAMVERC Research unit in Benin. Her research focuses on the identification of new vector control tools for improved control of pyrethroid-resistant malaria vectors. Corine has several years of experience in the evaluation of vector control products. She has led several IVCC, Industry and WHO-funded research projects contributing to the development of novel LLIN and IRS products and is currently one of the lead investigators of a large-scale UNITAID/Global Fund/IVCC-funded community trial investigating the efficacy of two next-generation LLINs in Benin. As Manager of the CREC/PAMVERC unit, Corine led the Facility to Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) certification becoming the first in West Africa to achieve this status for vector control product evaluation. She has also contributed to the development of high level standard operating procedures and WHO guidelines for evaluating new vector control tools.

Professor Hilary Ranson is a vector biologist whose research focuses on the control of mosquito borne disease, particularly on the use of insecticides in public health. She has led several international consortia to develop and evaluate new approaches for malaria control and currently leads a major interdisciplinary programme to increase the impact of vector control in sub Saharan Africa by filling capacity gaps, strengthening linkages between research and policy, and integrating approaches to target multiple vector borne diseases. Professor Ranson is a member of the Vector Control Advisory Group and provides additional ad hoc technical support to WHO. She works closely with industry partners and has established a testing service at LSTM to evaluate potential new vector control tools against a range of characterized mosquito populations from the field.

Graham has more than 30 years' experience in entomological research including laboratory and field studies on mosquito vectors of disease. He has expertise in pesticide resistance research, pest control product efficacy testing, and the development and implementation of quality management systems compliant with the OECD principles of Good Laboratory Practice. Following his PhD at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (supervised by Professor Janet Hemingway) and postdoctoral research at Cardiff University, Graham took the sideways step into industry becoming Technical Director at a CRO conducting product testing for the pest control industry. He then established his own successful consultancy before joining IVCC in 2016. At IVCC, Graham is responsible for supporting the GLP certification of collaborating African trials facilities, trials capacity resource planning, quality management and facility relationship management. He is also technical lead and support on new and repurposed active ingredient projects, insecticide analysis, formulation and biochemistry projects. Graham is a Member of the UK Research Quality Association and Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. He was previously a consultant to WHO on GLP certification and was for 10 years a member of IVCC’s External Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC).

Sheila Tamara Shawa (Ph.D.) is a Senior Program Officer at the Africa Union Commission in the department of Social Affairs under the AIDS, TB, Malaria and Other infectious diseases (ATM & OIDs) division. She is the focal person for TB, NTDs and the CHWs workers initiative. Dr Shawa possesses expertise in diseases control programs with over 10 years extensive experience in public health, policy formulation & advocacy, and preparedness to epidemics. Dr Shawa was instrumental in the establishment of the Africa CDC as senior project officer where she was responsible for coordinating activities in the regional collaborating centres including in Central, Eastern and Southern Africa and technical activities at HQ. Dr Shawa coordinated the development of 5 year Strategic Plan of the Africa CDC.

Abraham Mnzava is a renowned malaria expert with a focus on policy and prevention and control. He retired from the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Malaria Programme in July 2016 as the Coordinator, Malaria Vector Control. Prior to this position, he also worked in two of the six Regional offices of the WHO (WHO/AFRO and WHO/EMRO) – advising countries on the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases. Abraham is currently working for the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), and part of his role includes supporting and strengthening national and regional regulatory systems to enhance the introduction of new tools and products for vector control. He also supports ALMA in its role on local production of pharmaceuticals and vector control commodities in Africa. Abraham keenly understands the challenges that countries face in terms of eliminating vector-borne diseases and has demonstrated his personal commitment to working with them to address their needs. He is also keenly aware of the challenges of registering new vector control tools, especially on the African continent, and is therefore passionate in supporting countries in this area. He firmly believes that unless addressed, these challenges will ultimately sabotage all efforts to control and eliminate vector-borne diseases globally.