STEM Profiles
Mphatso Martha Kalemba is a Principal Environmental Officer at Environmental Affairs Department where Mphatso is the alternate CBD focal point, SBSTTA Focal Point and National ABS Focal Point for Malawi. She is also responsible for other biodiversity activities in Malawi and is currently a National Coordinator for the Invasive Alien Species Management Project. She was an IPBES Fellow for the Africa Region Assessment and was previously a member of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network.
She is a Board Member of the Wildlife Environment Society of Malawi for the Central Region. Mphatso has represented Malawi at various CBD COP and SBSTTA meetings and is currently in the Interim Core Group of the African Group of Negotiators where she co-leads the African Position on Digital Sequence Information, Access and Benefit Sharing and other relevant agenda items. She was recently a Co-lead in the Global Thematic Consultation on Sustainable Use of the Biological Diversity for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Mphatso has a Master’s Degree in Environmental Governance, specialising in Biodiversity Governance and a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science and Technology. She has worked for Environmental Affairs Department at National and Sub national levels for the past 10 years. Prior to that, Mphatso worked as a Scientific Officer at National Research Council of Malawi, as a Laboratory Research Technician at Malawi Liverpool Welcome Trust Clinical Research Project and as a Product Development Officer at Universal Industries in Malawi.
Mphatso was born on 24th February 1986 in a family of 4 girls and is a devoted Christian and participates in a number of Church Ministry outreach activities including reaching out to vulnerable women in her community. Mphatso enjoys hiking, reading, writing on her blog (Malawi Nature’s Guard) and travelling to new places. She is also a mentor for the Green Girls Platform in Malawi.
Some of the presentations in a few conferences
1) Presentation on the subject “Lessons Learnt from Efforts to Implement Aichi Biodiversity Targets” at the Trondheim Conferences on Biodiversity (from 1:32:00) https://vimeo.com/345910639?ref=em-share
2) Co-lead for the Consultation on the Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity https://youtu.be/nYjhrWffLcg
3) Keynote Speaker for the Virtual Webinar on the Scope of Access and Benefit Sharing” (from 0:20:51): https://vimeo.com/397245699
4) Some newspaper articles:
https://www.mwnation.com/preserve-biodiversity-to-stop-malaria/
Has worked as Principal Examiner, ICT for Reserve Bank of Malawi since 2010 and holds a Master’s Degree from Leeds University (UK) in Computing and Management and a Bachelor of Science from University if Malawi. Phindu Lipenga is a 2018 Fletcher Leadership Program in Financial Inclusion fellow, Tufts University (USA).
She has experience is assessing ICT risk for banks, developing regulations, guidelines and other relevant regulatory tools in the areas of ICT, Operational Risk and Stress Testing. She has been involved in AML/CFT examinations in checking adequacy of KYC documentation including identification requirements.
In addition, Phindu Lipenga provides oversight for credit reference bureaus. She represented Reserve Bank of Malawi at the ID for Africa conference in 2017 (Namibia) and has worked with banks and other financial institutions to advance the adoption of the Malawi National Identification as the primary identification document in Banks.
Phindu has also presented on the challenges of identification at the Financial Inclusion Global Initiative Symposium in 2019 (Egypt). As part of the Fletcher fellowship, she published a policy memo entitled Microfinance Borrowing: Enablement through data submission by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to Credit Reference Bureau, which is highly dependent on the National ID in Malawi becoming the primary identification document for MNOs. She has various interests such as financial technologies, financial inclusion, credit reporting, cyber security and stress testing for banks.
Tapoka Mkandawire is a parasitologist and public speaker currently living in Cambridge, UK, and interested in science and entrepreneurship. She enjoys facilitating and seeing science grow from initial ideas into real world implementation helping those it was designed for.
Her current research looks at the role of the host microbiome host pathogen interactions, and the development of novel in vivo and in vitro models to study them. Outside of research, she is passionate about the effective communication of science, and the positive impact this can have on society.
Theresa Mkandawire is an Associate Professor and a Registered Civil Engineer with over 20 years’ experience at University level, specialising in water and sanitation. She is currently working at Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences. Dr Mkandawire has experience in managing projects targeted at low-income countries for different development partners. She leads and works effectively in partnerships with other institutions and has been effectively managing large donor financed projects.
Theresa served as Dean of Engineering from 2013 to 2018 at University of Malawi – The Polytechnic. She has led programme development for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. She also led the development a mining engineering department at University of Malawi – The Polytechnic. Dr. Theresa Mkandawire is a Founding member of Women in Engineering in Malawi and has been supporting and motivating girls and boys in Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
She has received several outstanding awards locally and internationally for her outstanding work including being recognised as the first female dean of engineering in Malawi in 2014 by The Malawi Institution of Engineers. Next Einstein Forum (NEF) awarded her for her “outstanding valuable contribution and dedication to science, engineering & technology and overcoming adversity” in 2018.
She is currently a Team leader of a number of projects including NEST (New-born Essential Solutions and Technologies (leading invention education), working with Rice University, USA (through Rice 360 Institute for Global Health). She also led the Skills Development Project funded by World Bank. She is a key member for Global Water Partnership-Malawi. Theresa Mkandawire has been an external examiner for University of Zambia and University of Western Cape, South Africa from 2016 to date.
Theresa has also facilitated local and international workshops/conferences as well as short training courses. Theresa has published book chapters and peer reviewed journal articles. She holds or has held several other public offices including serving as the Secretary General of the Africa Engineering Deans Council (AEDC), Council member for Mzuzu University, Senate Member for Malawi University of Science and Technology and 1st Vice President of the Malawi Institution of Engineers.
Florence Love Nkosi
Florence Love Nkosi is an ICT lecturer at Mzuzu University. Professionally, is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified EC council Instructor (CEI) and a CISCO cyber Ops associate. Academically, she holds a Master’s of Science in Forensic Information Technology from University of Portsmouth and a B.Sc. in Information Technology, from University of Malawi, The Polytechnic. She is also Commonwealth Scholarship Alumni and 2021 SheLeadsTech Ambassador for ISACA.
Florence has vast experience in information technology auditing and information security. Under the Central Internal Audit Unit (CIAU), she has carried out information systems audits within government departments including Integrated Financial Management System(IFMIS), Human resource Management System(HRMIS) and Malawi Road Traffic Management system (MALTIS) among others. She has also provided technical support in information security at Accountant General’s Department in order to ensure that necessary security controls are implemented into the newly implemented IFMIS.
Currently, she works as a lecturer ICT at Mzuzu University, where among other’s she supervises final year projects as well as deliver lectures in Information system auditing and Network administration and Security. As a coordinator for professional trainings, she plans and delivers various professional courses including Certified Ethical Hacker(CEH) and also tailored trainings for various organizations. She is passionate about research in cybersecurity, Information system auditing, application of data mining, digital forensics and Internet of things(IoT).
Tadala Namaona
Tadala Namaona holds BSc in Electrical engineering and MSc in Multimedia Telecommunications from University of Malawi-The Polytechnic (2015) and Xian Jiatong Liverpool University (2019) respectively.
She is currently a lecturer in Telecommunications in the electrical engineering department at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), with previous experience in teaching of the following areas: Analogue communication, Propagation and antennas, Telephony systems, Signals & systems, Digital signal processing, Data communication networks and Optical communication systems.
Tadala’s research interest include: Sensor networks, Wearable antennas, Network architectures and protocols, Pricing in communication networks, Multimedia Technology and High mobility wireless local area networks.
She has worked with TNM and ESCOM as an intern and she is a member of the Malawi Institute of Engineers (MIE).