Esther N. Ngumbi

Esther Ndumi Ngumbi is a Kenyan-American entomologist and academic who is currently an Assistant Professor of Entomology and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She was awarded the 2018 Society for Experimental Biology Presidential Award.

Early life and education Esther Ngumbi grew up in Kwale County, a rural farming community in Kenya. She was introduced to farming at the age of seven, when her parents gave her a strip of land to cultivate cabbages. As a child she became aware of the challenges that farmers faced, including drought and bad soils. In 2007 she was awarded an American Association of University Women (AAUW) International Fellowship that allowed her to complete a doctoral degree in entomology at Auburn University. In 2011 she became one of the first people from her community to achieve a doctorate. After earning her PhD she remained at Auburn University as a postdoctoral scholar. She also teaches science communication. In 2019 Ngumbi delivered the plenary lecture at the British Ecological Society annual meeting.

Academic service and recognition

She was awarded the 2017 Emerging Sustainability Leader Award and Women of Colour Award. In 2018 Ngumbi was awarded the Society for Experimental Biology's President's Medal.

Ngumbi is an active science communicator and has contributed to Mail & Guardian, The Moth, Scientific American and the World Economic Forum. She has appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio. Ngumbi was selected by Barack Obama to be part of the Young African Leadership Initiative. In 2021 Ngumbi was awarded the Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Selected publications Her publications include: