Fredros Okumu

Fredros is a Research Scientist at the Ifakara Health Institute, where he is also the Deputy Head of Environmental Health and Ecological Sciences Thematic Group. He originally trained as a public health officer at the Moi University, College of Health Sciences in Kenya. He has a masters degree in Medical Parasitology and Entomology (University of Nairobi, Kenya) and also a masters in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (Lund University, Sweden). He obtained a PhD and a Post Graduate Diploma in Infectious Tropical Diseases from the University of London, School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Since 2008, Fredros has been studying human-mosquito interactions and developing synthetic attractants for trapping disease transmitting mosquitoes. He and his colleagues are currently developing outdoor mosquito control devices that mimic real humans, to complement existing interventions like insecticidal bed nets. 

He has also extensively evaluated synergies and redundancies that occur when Long Lasting Insecticide Nets and Indoor Residual Spraying, are combined for malaria control. His other interests include geo-statistical approaches to surveillance of mosquito-borne pathogens, mathematical modelling of human-mosquito interactions to predict effectiveness of interventions, improved housing for marginalized communities and studies on quantitative ecology of mosquito-borne pathogens. He has also recently begun research on prevention of child malnutrition. Fredros was awarded the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Young Investigator of the Year Award in 2009, following his role in development of highly effective synthetic mosquito attractants. He was also a member of the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (MalERA) consultative group on Basic Sciences and Enabling Technologies. His current research is supported mainly by competitive research grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada™, The European Union, and USAID. He also supervises post-graduate degree students based at IHI and has more than 20 peer reviewed scientific publications from his research since 2008.