Newsletter
Starting her mandate as a Board Member, Charlotte has a plethora of ideas to enhance the MCAA members’ involvement within the Association. As a plant ecologist, she also hopes to foster the collaboration of the MCAA with high-level international organisations.
Charlotte Ndiribe, in her own words
I am from Nigeria. I am a phylogenetic ecologist and currently a senior lecturer in ecology at the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, University of Lagos, Nigeria. I am a former recipient of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Research Fellowships (FP6-IIF Incoming International Fellowships) under the project title ‘European centre for biodiversity and conservation research’. At the time, the fellowship enabled my employment at the Faculty of Biological Sciences and studies at the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation, University of Leeds, United Kingdom. It was in this same department that I saw the advertisement for my doctoral research programme in Lausanne, Switzerland.
My research projects focus on plant phylogenetic and pollution ecology. I investigate the ecological and evolutionary interactions that shape plant distributions, at various spatial and temporal scales. This is context dependent on human land use and climatic change scenarios. Also, as part of my research, I am merging ecology and technology to develop eco-friendly utilities to tackle the waste and pollution crisis confronting humanity.
I am chair, convener, secretary, and member of several organisations. A few are the African Biogenome Project, where I am Chair of the Open Institute for Genomics & Bioinformatics, and Chair of the Partnerships & Fundraising Committee. The British Ecological Society (BES), where I am a Board Member of the BES Memberships Committee, and the International Representative of the BES Climate Change Ecology Special Interest Group.
I’m currently on the scientific committee of the Italian Society of Electoral Studies (SISE) and a member of the Italian Journal of Electoral Studies (QOE/IJES) editorial board.
My main research is about political parties, elections, intra-party democracy, political communication and populism.
Newcomer to the MCAA team, Charlotte is eager to start working within the Association as a Board Member.
Helping the MCAA member
With clear objectives, Charlotte plans to strengthen the Career Development Working Group of the MCAA. “I have a vision to foster the honing of career prospects and continued learning among members, especially by promoting personal awareness and skills acquisition. That is why I have already come up with the idea of an electronic ‘Suggestions Box’ to initiate constant intelligent inputs from our members to know what they want and let their voices be heard,” she explains.
MCAA webinars are also in the spotlight, as Charlotte would like to improve their quality and make them more engaging for the members. In her opinion, MCAA webinars should be aligned with MCAA members’ preferences and commitments.
“My objective is to infuse new ideas and innovations into knowledge advancement, member networking, research collaborations, and life stability for all MCAA members. For this, I intend to employ creativity and novel engagement strategies to ensure all MCAA members benefit from our existing services to the community. I am optimistic that as I serve, I will find ‘vacant niches’ to occupy and prioritise for the good of MCAA members,” she adds.
An MCAA forum on ecology
Charlotte is a plant ecologist. She therefore foresees great collaborations with organisations such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) or the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), among others.
Why not having a forum dedicated to MCAA ecologists or other specialties? “This will ensure greater networking among our members, including the exchange of new ideas for general progress. Note that this is transmissible to other disciplines as well, such as MCAA chemists, MCAA physicists, MCAA microbiologists, and so on,” she says.
Above all, Charlotte would like to thank the MCAA members for having voted for her. “I look forward to your continued support to serve you better. Our future is bright!”
Aurélia Chaise
MCAA Editorial Team