Overall Purpose of the Job

• To work on projects on the use of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) to control fall army worm, the main job purpose is to culture and rear local EPN isolates at icipe, conduct bioprospecting, and identify any EPN found, and finally, the position will assist in field trials.

Specific Duties

• Conduct routine sampling and isolation of EPN.
• Rearing and storage of EPN isolates including testing methods for rearing of large numbers of EPN.
• Identification of EPN isolates using morphological and molecular techniques.
• Data collection from laboratory and field experiments (mainly EPN and fall army worm).
• Develop a repository for EPN isolates at icipe.

Requirements/Qualifications

• Diploma in a relevant field.
• At least 1 year of experience with different nematology techniques with a focus on EPN -Technical expertise in designing and conducting experiments.
• Skills in sampling and culturing Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs).
• Knowledge of nematodes.
• Ability to quantify and identify EPNs.
• Ability to use MS Office computer packages.

Reporting

• This position reports to the Integrated Expert