Jandouwe Villinger is Senior Scientist and Head of the Animal Health Theme at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Nairobi, Kenya, where he has been based for over sixteen years. His research focuses on the ecology, molecular epidemiology, and surveillance of vector-borne diseases affecting livestock, wildlife, and human health in sub-Saharan Africa, with a strong emphasis on ticks and tick-borne pathogens alongside other vector systems (mosquitoes, sand flies, tsetse). His group has developed and applied PCR-HRM, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, and xenosurveillance frameworks to characterize vector microbiomes and detect emerging and neglected pathogens, including Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, and Neoehrlichia species across cattle, camel, and wildlife systems. He has co-authored peer-reviewed studies on vector-borne pathogens in diverse African ecosystems, mentors graduate students from across the region, and chairs icipe's Institutional Scientific and Ethics Review Committee (ISERC)and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).