Students

FEATURED STUDENT: Sadic Waswa

Sadic Waswa

Sadic joined forces with Adjunct Curator Julian Kerbis during Julian's year as a Fulbright Scholar at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Sadic was an eager biology student looking for a master's project and Julian was looking for just such a student. Sadic ended up doing extensive fieldwork under Julian's tutelage surveying mammals in various forests around Kampala and in western Uganda. He's now working on his master's thesis based on these specimens, including working on the genetics of the rodent genera Pelomys and Hybomys, both of which he caught a lot of during his field surveys. The header photo shows him doing lab work in the Field Museum Pritzker Lab. Sadic also has a background in reptiles and amphibians and is generally interested in all aspects of natural history.

Wanyoike Wamiti

Wamiti, a one-time participant in The Field Museum's African Tropical Biodiversity Program, is currently pursuing a master's degree from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. With funding from the Irene D. Pritzker Fund, Wamiti will continue his studies of bird ectoparasites (which includes lice, mites, ticks, fleas, and hippoboscid flies) in Kenya. His project is entitled "Comparative study of ectoparasite fauna of two wild avian species in different agro-ecological zones in Kenya," with the Field Museum's ectoparasite expert Jason Weckstein as a member of his thesis committee.

Skoracki M., M. Hromada, W. Wamiti (2011). A new species and new host records of syringophilid mites (Acari: Syringophilidae) from passerines from Kenya. Zootaxa. 2922: 34-40

Charles Kahindo

Charles is a Congolese researcher who is associated with the Université Officielle de Bukavu in the DRC and Makerere University in Uganda. His Ph.D. research focused on genetic variation and structure in Albertine Rift birds--particularly in the endangered Grauer's Rush Warbler (Bradypterus graueri)--a region that has received very little phylogeographic attention despite its large number of endemic animals. He currently works for the WWF in Uvira, D.R. Congo.

Kahindo, C., R.C.K. Bowie, and J.M. Bates (2007). The relevance of data on genetic diversity for the conservation of Afro-montane regions. Biological Conservation. 134: 262-270.

Prince Kaleme

Prince is a Congolese mammologist who studies phylogeography of mammals in the Albertine Rift. He obtained his masters degree from the University of Cape Town and in 2011 completed his Ph.D. at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, entitled “Habitat fragmentation, patterns of diversity and phylogeography of small mammal species in the Albertine Rift." He currently works at Maiko National Park in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kaleme, P.K., J.M. Bates, J. Kerbis Peterhans, M.M. Jacques, and B.R. Ndara (2007). Small mammal diversity in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park and surrounding areas, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Journal of Integrative Zoology. 2: 239-246.

Michael Huhndorf

Michael is a mammologist who has done extensive field work in the Albtertine Rift with the Field Museum while a graduate student at Illinois State University. He was also a mammology instructor at ATPB training sessions in the Congo.

Huhndorf, M.H., J.C.K. Peterhans, and S.S. Loew (2007). Comparative phylogeography of three endemic rodents from the Albertine Rift, east central Africa. Molecular Ecology. 16(3):663-674.

Robert Kizungu Byamana

Kizungu is an ornithologist with CRSN-Lwiro and has worked on various bird- and conservation-related projects in the region. He has conducted the only studies on Bedford’s Flycatcher (Terpsiphone bedfordi), a rare endemic of the west side of the Albertine Rift, and has also worked on hornbill conservation.

Kizungu, B., M. Ntabaza, and M. Mburugune (1998). Ethno-ornithology of the Tembo in Eastern DRC (former Zaire): Part 1, Kalehe zone. African Study Monographs. 19: 103-113.

Potiphar Kaliba

Potiphar was the acting director of the Museums of Malawi while simultaneously conducting his PhD research on the evolution of birds and small mammals in montane areas of Malawi. His study species include Cape (Malawi) Batis (Batis capensis dimorpha) and Stripe-cheeked Greenbul (Andropadus milanjensis). He is working with Dr. Rauri C. K. Bowie of University of California Berkeley and has coordinated much of the Field Museum’s fieldwork in Malawi. He is currently the director of the Department of Antiquities for the government of Malawi.

Taylor, P.J., S. Maree, J. van Sandwyk, J.C. Kerbis Peterhans, W.T. Stanley, E. Verheyen, P. Kaliba, W. Verheyen, P. Kaleme, and N.C. Bennett (2009). Speciation mirrors geomorphology and palaeoclimatic history in African laminate-toothed rats (Muridae: Otomyini) of the Otomys denti and Otomys lacustris species-complexes in the ‘Montane Circle’ of East Africa. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 96: 913–941.

Lucinda Lawson

Lucinda recently received her PhD from the University of Chicago in frog phylogeography and evolution in the Eastern Arc Mountains. She conducted extensive sampling across Malawi in order to get insight into this subject, since some of her subject species’ ranges include Malawian highlands in addition to Tanzanian highlands. She is currently a research geneticist with the USDA; some of her more recent publications can be found here.

Lawson, L. (2010). The discordance of diversification: evolution in the tropical-montane frogs of the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. Molecular Ecology. 19: 4046-4060.

Sampath Lokulagappatti

A native of Sri Lanka, Sampath participated in some of the Field Museum’s field work in Malawi as part of his PhD research on the evolution of African bulbuls, entitled Climatic perturbations and speciation of southern and eastern African bulbuls (family Pycnonotidae).

Fjeldså, J., Johansson, U.S., Lokugalappatti, L.G.S. and Bowie, R.C.K. (2007) Diversification of African greenbuls in space and time: linking ecological and historical processes. Journal of Ornithology. 148: S359-367.

Charles Kahindo in the field in the DRC.