Oliver

My career as an academic has been closely linked to immunology, and my work on Drosophila gave me a strong interest not only in innate immunity, but specifically insect immunity. I was employed as a medical scientist at the Vector Control Reference Laboratory (VCRL) from 2005. The focus of my PhD work was the pleiotropic effect of insecticide resistance on coping with metabolic stress. For my post-PhD work the focus shifted to the effect of the external environment, with a particular focus on the effect of pollution. I have had 7 Honours students and 5 MSc students. One of the Honours students was awarded the prize for best Genetics Honours student, and the two MSc students with distinction.
I have been an invited peer reviewer for 25 journals. I have chaired sessions for the XXV International Congress of Entomology and organised the 9^th International Congress of Dipterology symposium. I have been involved in numerous science engagement initiatives.
I am broadly interested in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of vector insects, specifically the southern African Malaria vectors. I am particularly interested in the relatively unexplored niches of vector proteomics, metabolomics and epigenetics.