Announcing our E-Mentors and E-Mentees

November 27, 2020

We have previously reported on the progress of our new E-mentoring Program, to ensure that we continue through COVID-19 difficulties to help develop the technical and organisational skills and expertise of agricultural researchers, scientists and policy makers in developing countries.

The program is building on the successful outcomes of our long term existing Mentoring Program, which has seen face-to-face interaction in overseas countries, backed up by electronic contact, and the Fund’s conference scholar mentoring program, matching young NextGen researchers with experienced Australians who attend our conference.

We are now very pleased to introduce you to the first group of 35 pairs of e-mentors and e-mentors.

“We are hoping that this program is fostering new contact opportunities that are otherwise impossible while we are dealing with COVID-19,” said our CEO, Dr Colin Chartres, who is managing the program and is also an e-mentor.

Over the coming year we will be reporting on how each of the pairs is progressing and what achievements they are making with their agreed mentoring plans and goals.

Our mentors’ experience and expertise makes them well placed to support mentees who have requested interest in topics as broad as research leadership and management, agricultural policy development, science communication, scaling up innovation, agri-start-ups & innovations, how to develop and work in inter-disciplinary research, climate smart agriculture, sustainability of agricultural production systems, market and value chain analysis, sustainable intensification of agricultural systems and agricultural extension.

In addition to online training being made available for e-mentors, they were invited to a webinar in late October, for a discussion about the mindset, skills and techniques of mentoring to better equip them to start a successful relationship with their mentee. This included reminders of how to be an effective mentor and key messages on mentoring.

We wish to thank sincerely our e-mentors who are giving freely of their time and expertise. They are:

 

Ass. Prof Jes Sammut	Dr Ian Nuberg
Dr Andrew Noble	Dr Jay Cummins
Dr Colin Chartres	Dr John Angus
Dr Di Zeng	Dr John Dixon
Dr Eric Craswell	Dr Kamal Melvani
Dr Geoff Allan	Dr Mark Peoples
Dr Geoff Kuehne	Dr Martin Blumenthal
Dr Matthew Denton	Dr Murray Unkovich
Dr Paul Fox	Dr Robert Mensah
Dr Robert Redden	Dr Samuel Ariong
Dr Soumi Paul Mukhopadhyay	Dr T.J. Higgins
Mr Rob Velthuis	Prof Bill Rathmell
Prof Daniel Rodriguez	Prof Navid Moheimani
Prof Richard Bawden	Prof Richard Beyer
Prof Robyn Alders	Prof Shaun Coffey
Prof Alan Lymbery

And we are pleased to announce our corresponding group of e-mentees. The sixteen countries in which the e-mentees are currently based include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Fiji, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, PNG, Samoa and Uzbekistan. Our e-mentees are:

Mr Oyture Anarbekov	Dr Siakka Diarra
Mrs Thai Minh	Ms Philmah Waken
Mr Cyril Kolese Atung	Mrs Betty Tiko-Motoro
Mrs Kuinimeri Finau	Mr Kamrul Hassan Suman
Mr Andrew Awabi	Dr Ram Datt
Dr Farah Farhanah Haron	Mrs Suhaina Supian
Dr Darwin Basquial	Dr Abazar Rajabi
Mr Muhammad Suhaib	Ms Abigail May Retuta
Dr Shahram Mahmoud Soltani	Mrs Abhilasha Jha
Mrs Irene Chand	Mr Yogendra Acharya
Mr Paula Koroikata	Dr Suprehatin
Miss Sonia Samreen	Dr Tim Krupnik
Mr Jimba Rabgyal	Mrs Tashi Gyalmo
Dr Sharif Ahmed	Mr A S M Alanuzzaman Kurishi
Dr Khin Thein Nyunt	Dr Muhammad Arshadul Hoque
Mr Chenzang Dendup	Dr Zahra Amini
Dr Rumana Akter	Ms Prapti Barooah
Dr Surendran Rajaratnam	Ms Laura Khor

 Our e-mentors and e-mentees have our very best wishes for successful collaboration and learning over the coming year. Their sharing of knowledge, skills and life experience will no doubt be of benefit to all involved.