Nov. 18, 2025 GES Colloquium

ZOOM ONLY | Dr. Hamidou Maïga will share insights on how innovative mosquito control, including Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and nanotechnology, is being used to combat vector-borne diseases.

Innovative and sustainable mosquito control approaches are urgently needed to address the growing challenge of vector-borne diseases in Africa. This presentation will showcase efforts to build local capacity for the development and implementation of advanced technologies, focusing on the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and nanotechnology-based interventions. Drawing from ongoing research worldwide, we will discuss the optimization of mosquito mass-rearing, irradiation, and release systems to enhance the efficiency of SIT programs. In parallel, we will highlight promising findings from studies on chemically and green-synthesized silver nanoparticles, which demonstrated strong larvicidal activity against both susceptible and insecticide-resistant strains of Anopheles coluzzii. These results underline the potential of nanotechnology as an eco-friendly and effective complement to traditional control tools. The presentation will also address challenges in developing nanotechnology-based approaches as a potential tool to reduce the burden of mosquito-borne diseases across Africa.

Related links:

• Blog: Governing Emerging Technologies: A Lesson from Burkina Faso , Nourou Barry and Katie Barnhill, 9/5/25

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Medical Entomologist at the Institute de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante, Direction Regionale de l’Ouest (IRSS-DRO), Burkina Faso | LinkedIn | Google Scholar | X

Dr. Hamidou Maïga is a medical entomologist whose research focuses on innovative mosquito control strategies to combat vector-borne diseases. He specializes in the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), contributing to the development and optimization of mosquito mass-rearing, irradiation, and release systems to enhance the effectiveness of SIT-based programs. Dr. Maïga has also initiated pioneering work on the application of nanotechnology in mosquito control, exploring eco-friendly, plant-based nanoparticle formulations as sustainable alternatives to conventional insecticides. His broader research aims to strengthen local scientific capacity and promote environmentally sound, genetics- and plant-based approaches to vector management across Africa

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Recorded from NC State’s GES Colloquium, this podcast examines how biotechnologies take shape in the world: microbiome engineering in built environments, gene editing and gene drives, forest and agricultural genomics, data governance and equity, risk and regulation, sci-art, and public engagement in practice.

Colloquium Home | Zoom Registration | Watch Colloquium Videos | LinkedIn | Newsletter

GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Produced by Patti Mulligan, Communications Director, GES Center, NC State

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co

Nov. 11, 2025 GES Colloquium

Scientific inquiry into the socio-ecological challenges of forced displacement, environmental degradation, and shifting land use requires an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar approach. This research examines the interplay between local ecological knowledge, environmental pressures, human migration, and the broader global economic and political systems that shape these processes.

What comes to mind when you think of Costa Rica? Volcanoes, toucans, and turquoise rivers?

My journey as an avian ecologist working in Costa Rica brought me to a complex dynamic between the natural beauty of the country and the xenophobia towards people from Nicaragua. Listening and learning from first and second-generation Nicaraguan immigrants living in Costa Rica has shaped my doctoral research. My research explores how displaced Nicaraguan migrants and Costa Ricans know their natural surroundings and how they build a relationship with the land through everyday practices. This inquiry has pushed me beyond the boundaries of traditional ecological research, requiring an interdisciplinary lens and an openness to multiple ways of knowing. It has also allowed me to articulate the importance of engaging with the philosophy of science to question how we produce knowledge, whose knowledge counts, and how scientific practice can evolve to be more inclusive and reflexive.

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Graduate student at North Carolina State University | Profile

Susana grounds her work in community engagement and collaborative learning. She has worked with the Antioch University New England’s community engagement team since 2020, where they have engaged with over 200 environmental leaders through the North American Association of Environmental Education community. Susana is a PhD student in the Forestry and Environmental Resources department. In addition to her current formal education, she works on a collaborative project with the California State University Desert Studies Center and Bureau of Land Management, to engage off-highway vehicle users, land managers, and tribes across the Mojave Desert. Trained as an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she has been involved in avian conservation projects in southern California and Costa Rica. Her bird conservation path brought her to learning from the communities that live among the biodiversity she loves. While studying manakins at Parque Nacional Volcán Tenorio, she began engaging with a rural Costa Rican community, learning about their connections to the natural environment as first and second-generation migrants from Nicaragua. Using political ecology and ethnoecology as theoretical frameworks, she seeks to understand the complex socio-ecological dynamics (power relations, resource distribution and environmental justice) within the community.

__ Recorded from NC State’s GES Colloquium, this podcast examines how biotechnologies take shape in the world: microbiome engineering in built environments, gene editing and gene drives, forest and agricultural genomics, data governance and equity, risk and regulation, sci-art, and public engagement in practice.

Colloquium Home | Zoom Registration | Watch Colloquium Videos | LinkedIn | Newsletter

GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.

Produced by Patti Mulligan, Communications Director, GES Center, NC State

Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co