Sir Peter Barter visits IMR | Minister launches broadband | PNGIMR delegation visit NARI | Directors directions | EPO project update | Update on PCV project | IMR Goroka get training on DMSys | Staff attend workshop in Malasia | New Staff | Students complete honours | This quater in picture | Gone for studies | Five staff graduate from DWU | Social Research Cadetship program | Malawi HIV/AIDS delegation visit Goroka | Message of Hib vaccie to PNG | Don Lewis revisits PNGIMR | Information for health workers for Hib vaccine | Dual visit Professor M J Cardosa's lab | Michael Alpers library news | IMR women celebrate IWD

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NEW STAFF

This quarter (October – December 2006) PNGIMR had a lot of students coming into the institute to do their work experience.

Her love and respect for Papua New Guinea and her long family relationship with the people of PNG has ignited Dr Angela Kelly’s desire to come back to PNG to give a helping hand where the need arises most in this present era.

Angela’s uncle lived and worked in the country in pre independence days so her ties with PNG go back a long way. Her cousin brother and family now live in Lae.

Angela has come to the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research from the National Center in HIV Social Research as the team leader for the Strengthening HIV Social Research Program.

Angela was born and raised in Sydney but for the past five years shes been living in Melbourne where she finished her PHD in Anthropology and Public Health at the Australian Research Center in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University. Her PHD thesis title was ‘Changing Minds and Lives: The Lived Experience of AIDS Dementia.'

Before coming to PNGIMR Angela lived and worked in Beijing, China, for six months at the Youan Hospital as a HIV/AIDS educator.

She worked in PNG in 2003-2004 as a Consultant with Collaboration for Health in PNG where she co-wrote a training manual and trained Health Care Teams on Comprehensive HIV/Care. This work was done within the Catholic Health System.

Angela has been involved with HIV/AIDS work since 1994 in Australia. She said that her interest in working in the field of HIV/AIDS began after realizing that HIV/AIDS was an epidemic, which challenges people in ways that other illnesses do not because it’s an infection laden with moral, religious and political values.

She pointed out that by working in this area she has met some extraordinary people. People with HIV, advocates, researchers etc.

“I enjoy the challenges involved in working with HIV/AIDS. It makes me strive to contribute and do things better,” she said.

Angela pointed out that the consequences of good HIV Social Research, amongst other HIV work, can be life changing for those with the HIV virus and those affected by it.

“Working in this area I feel like I have a real opportunity to contribute to the well-being of others,” she said.

“In turn, by working with those in this field, I too have an opportunity to learn, usually from those who are most disadvantaged and marginalized in our community,” she added.

Angela will be in the country for 18 months.

Dr Jessica Markby

Dr Jessica Markby comes from Melbourne in Australia and is here in the PNGIMR to be in charge of the Vector Borne diseases Malaria laboratory in Goroka.

Dr Markby completed her PhD and first post doc at Melbourne University and lived as a volunteer in rural Cambodia.

She came to IMR Goroka for two weeks in August last year to do training in the Malaria Vector Borne disease lab and to set up the new bioplex and PCR machines that were funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Now she is here to run the lab and specifically work on the samples that are coming in from the IPTI studies in Madang and Maprik.

In the labs she’ll be running the samples through the equipment to determine what species of malaria they have by analysis their DNA.

This is a much more sensitive technique, to diagnose the species of malaria in the patients, rather than using microscopy.

Dr Markby is training Jonah Iga, Annemarie Laumaea, Rex Ivivi and Ore Toporua (a honours student with Fogarty) who are staffunder her supervision, on how to run the lab right throughout diagnotic.

“I think PNGIMR is a really great place to work, there’s so much happening here. Im really interested in learning about the activities of the other research units especially in the Operational Research and the HIV/STI lab, as these areas really interest me,” she said. “So its amazing that there are so many different groups in one space all working on something that will have potential public health outcome for PNG, thats why Im here,” she added.

“I got a chance to go to Maprik to do some field work in January, and that was fantastic; setting up mobile clinics to take blood samples etc. So now when I process the samples in the lab I understand where they’ve come from tand remember each sample represents a chlids life. I would like to go out in the fields more often.”

Dr Markby pointed out that another reason she came to Papua New Guinea was to get involved in community and outreached work.

Her areas of interest include human rights, domestic violence, rascalism, HIVprevention and education and empowerment of women.

To this end she has developed a network outside of work to get involved in that kind of work in PNG.

Hello my name is Appa Parunga but everyone calls me Allo, so I guess that’s my name.

I come from Port Moresby …opps if you mean my province, ok that’s Simbu.

I think PNGIMR is simply the best in terms of the type of research they carry out…its life saving research so I think I’m in the right place.

Here in PNGIMR Madang I am employed as a Graduate DATA Manager/Programmer but I’m doing bits of work here and there e.g. in the labs, field and IPTI etc…which I think is the best project I’m working on because all cool people work in it too …the best.

Well before coming to PNGIMR I was babysitting…no just kidding; I was schooling at UPNG in Statistics and Computer Science.

My motto in life is “Make the best and the maximum, with whatever little resources you have. And accept corrections and be quick to learn.”

My names Lisa Kandi and I come from Ialibu district in the Southern Highlands province.

I started working with PNGIMR Madang in the IPTI project as a project administration assistance on the 23rd of October 2006.

I’ve just graduated from the Divine Word University this year with a diploma in Health Management.

I think PNGIMR is working hard to help improve the health and well being of the people of Papua New Guinea in terms of the studies conducted by hardworking scientist from PNG and abroad.

I am new to PNGIMR and have just been working for only four months but I’m already delighted and enthusiastic about the work done in this place.

Hi everyone I’m Stanley Aisi and I come from Kairuku in the Central province.

I’ve just completed my degree in Business Informations at the Divine Word University last year and graduated this year.

Here in PNGIMR Madang I am working as a System Administrator.

Working for PNGIMR for the past months I’d say “PNGIMR is just the perfect institute for me to work in.”

It has a good working environment and everyone here is very friendly.