Osarobo Awanbor

Person

I am an international student currently studying for the Masters in Ecotoxicology at the University of Koblenz-Landau. For my earlier academic background, I have a bachelors degree in Microbiology from the University of Benin, Nigeria in 2010. Upon graduation, I did an internship in the dapartment of Health, Safety and Environment at a public servicing company in my country. This increased my interest for an environmentally inclined discipline.
I started the masters program in the winter of 2014 and within the time frame, I have had the opportunity of gaining indepth knowledge on the nature and interactions of toxic substances and their potential effects in the environment. In summer 2015, I did a 3 months internship at the company Tier-3 solutions in Leverkusen. Here I gained first hand knowledge in ecotoxicology field studies using the honey bee species - Apis mellifera.
This further led to a motivation in understanding the complex patterns, and potential toxic effect of pesticides on non-target species upon application in general. In line with the current development of the EU pesticide risk assessment scheme, efforts are being made for the improvement of guidance documents to include wild bee species such as bumble bees and solitary bees due to the limitations associated with data extrapolation from honey bee studies.
Thus, my current research interest and masters thesis on: the comparative analysis of the effect of commonly used agricultural pesticides, with an investigation of the most efficient route of pesticde entry using the wild bee species Osmia bicornis. The overall goal is to understand the differences in bee response to toxic exposure among species coupled with the possibilities of giving future recommendations to better aid the conservation of these essential organisms.

Research interests

• Bee Ecotoxicology and Ecology
• Community Ecology and Ecotoxicology
• Terrestrial Ecotoxicology

Current studies