Dr. Esther Kioko, Department Head of Zoology Department of National Museums of Kenya (NMK), Dr. Ngalla Kachache Jillani, Director of Institute of Primate Research NMK and other 4 scientists visited the Kunming institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KIZ, CAS) from 20th to 25th July 2015. The delegation had deeply communications with researchers from KIZ, and this visit strengthen the partnership and foster development in the future research cooperation and academic exchanges.
On 20th July, NMK delegate had a meeting with KIZ researchers. Dr. Yong-Gang Yao, Director of the KIZ welcomed the NMK delegation and introduced to them the history, research goals and priorities, and scientific achievements of KIZ. Yao also summarized the cooperation with Kenya in the past 3 years, and hoped two institutions will have further cooperation in the near future. While the discussion, KIZ further explained CAS President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) program to NMK researchers, and hoped more students, young and senior scholars could benefits from PIFI and carried out collaborative research projects in the future. In the afternoon, NMK researchers paid a visit to the Kunming Natural History Museum of Zoology. They hoped KIZ could offer them some training courses on making zoological specimens in the future.
On 21th July, Dr. Kioko, Dr. Kachache and Dr. Nyachieo presented seminars entitled “The National Museums of Kenya: Focus on Zoological Heritage management” and “Biomedical Research at the Institute of Primate Research and Potential areas of Collaboration with KIZ and other CAS Institutions”, respectively. They introduced the current status, ongoing programs and potential areas of collaborations of zoology department and institute of primate research of NMK. In the afternoon, NMK delegates paid a visit to the Zoological Specimens Bank.
On the next four days, NMK researchers had opportunities to visit the Primate Research Center, the CAS-Yunnan Government Laboratory of Biodiversity in Southwest China and several research groups of KIZ. NMK met PIs and discussed about collaboration possibilities, such as field survey on vertebrate biodiversity in East Africa, molecular evolution and genomic diversity of African domestic animals, major vector for pathogen carriers and pathophoresis in Africa and so on.
The collaborations between NMK and KIZ have started since 2013. On March 2015, NMK and KIZ signed MoU and MoA which further enhanced communication between the two institutes and enabled them to exchange ideas and skills.
