EAC PhD Students Secure Earthwatch Awards for 2024/25
Two PhD students from the NTU Eastern Africa Centre (EAC) and NTU ARES are among the three global recipients of the Neville Shulman Earthwatch Awards for 2024/25. This award underscores the EAC’s commitment to fostering innovative research and community engagement in environmental conservation.
Award recipients
Consolata Gitau, a Kenyan ecologist and EAC PhD student at Nottingham Trent University, is engaging local communities in Maasai Mara, Kenya. Consolata's research uses Passive Acoustic Monitoring to assess the restoration and degradation of savanna ecosystems. Consolata stated:
Receiving the Neville Shulman Earthwatch Award is an incredible honour and a huge boost to our efforts. I'm excited to use this opportunity to make a meaningful impact on African conservation.
Consolata Gitau
Alex Nduah Nderi, a Kenyan ecologist and EAC PhD student, has also been recognised for his project on the social ecological restoration of ecosystems in the Maasai Mara region. Alex's work involves biocultural assessment to build a database of core species (with socioeconomic value and ecological importance in restoration) through surveys and focus group discussions with local communities. Sharing his excitement, Alex said:
I'm very excited to receive the Earthwatch Neville Shulman Award, which will greatly support my fieldwork. It's a big milestone in my academic and professional development as an emerging scientist in ecology.
Alex Nduah Nderi
Impact and significance
The Neville Shulman Earthwatch Awards provide funding for early-career scientists to undertake meaningful research, increase local community engagement in environmental projects, and address some of the planet's most pressing environmental challenges. Emphasising the importance of these awards, Earthwatch stated:
The Neville Shulman Earthwatch Awards give individuals from across the world the opportunity to be granted funding that will enable them to undertake new meaningful research, increase local community engagement in environmental projects, and tackle some of the planet's biggest environmental challenges.
Earthwatch