PhD Student Ashwaq Alnazawi, studying at LSTM, was honoured last month at during a ceremony at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London.
Ashwaq is in her second year of studies within LSTM’s Department of Vector Biology working on a project entitled: Behavioural and physiological insecticide resistance of dengue vectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She is studying what she has found to be the principal dengue vector in Saudi Arabia Ae. Aegypti, which from Makkah and Jeddah is highly resistant to pyrethroids, which is the mainstay of control measures in the country.
Employed as a senior specialist of molecular biology at the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia, she obtained her MSc in molecular cell biology from Nottingham Trent University before obtaining a scholarship to improve vector control programme in Saudi Arabia, enabling her to come to LSTM. During the ceremony she received a certificate in honour of her achievements from His Highness Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf, Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the UK, during a ceremony to celebrate the national day of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Her award was in recognition of the fact that during the Royal Entomological Society's postgraduate forum earlier this year she received the prize for second place in the student-voted poster presentation. She was delighted with her award. She said: “It was a great honor to receive this certificate in recognition of my work and I would like to thank my supervisors Drs David Weetman and Philip McCall for their outstanding support, without which this award would not have been possible.”