Research interests cover a wide area of entomological topics including: insect resistance to insecticides, the biology, ecology and control of pests of agricultural importance such as the cotton whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, the lesser army worm, Spodoptera exigua, the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria and the sorghum shield bug, Agonoscelis pubescens. Some research was also carried out on beneficial insects such as the honey bee, Apis mellifera, and on insects of medical and veterinary importance, namely the housefly, Musca domestica and the blackfly, Simulium griseicollis.

In addition research supervision was provided for 15 Ph.D and 35 MSc. students.

 OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

I was Head Department of Crop Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, and member of various academic committees of the university. I also had the opportunity to participate in and contribute to many local, regional and international scientific activities.

I acted as consultant in the field of plant protection to various organizations, including FAO, UNDP, IFAD, GTZ and many other local, regional and international bodies. LocallyI carried out consultations and evaluation missions in the area of plant protection and pest management for the Ministry of Agriculture and the Sudan Agricultural Bank,  and others. I acted as the editor-in-chief of the Sudan Agricultural Journal for five years and was member of the editorial board of the University of Khartoum Journal of Agricultural Sciences from 1995 to 2004. Regionally, I carried out consultancy work for the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development concerning an evaluation of the level of adoption of the integrated pest  management approach in the Arab Countries. I also did the basic study for the FAO regional project currently known as the Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) for Trans-boundary Control of Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases, which is focused on desert locust in the Central Region, namely the Arab countries. This project has been going on since 1996. I also established the current field station for desert locust research at the Red Sea coast of Sudan, while I was the Locust Programme Leader at the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE). At the International level, besides my work as FAO staff in Yemen (1979-1984) and as senior principal scientist at ICIPE, Nairobi (!990-1995), I was member of the UNDP/FAO Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) for desert locust research, and was Chairman of the Technical Group of the FAO Desert Locust Control Committee (DLCC) from October 1998 to Nov.2000. I was member of the UNDP Scientific Advisory Panel for the development of environmentally acceptable alternatives to desert locust control methods.  I was also member of the FAO Expert Meetings on Pesticides Application in Locust Control. I was an invited Panel Member of the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, Yokohama, Japan, 1994.