News Former fellows stories FTP - Selected highlights 2023

Former FTP fellow in Malawi, James Banda, hosts a visit from the University of Iceland

2 June 2023
Outside the Fisheries Research Station in Monkey Bay. From the left: James Banda, María Guðjónsdótti…
Outside the Fisheries Research Station in Monkey Bay. From the left: James Banda, María Guðjónsdóttir, Ólöf Guðný Geirsdóttir, and two visiting students from Department of Food Science and Nutrition at University of Iceland.

James Banda graduated from FTP´s six-month programme in 2020 on the Quality Management of Fish Handling and Processing specialist line and is currently working at the Fisheries Research Station (FRS), in Monkey Bay, a station under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change in Malawi. James currently holds the position of Head of Fish Processing and Expert for African Organisation for Standardization (ARSO). He also serves as the focal point for the International Food Safety Network (INFOSAN). In May he received a visit from a group from the University of Iceland, Department of Food Science and Nutrition and showed them around FRS. The group consisted of Dr. Maria Guðjónsdóttir, Dean of the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Professor Ólöf Guðný Geirsdóttir, and two students from the same department (see main photo). Dr. Maria Guðjónsdóttir taught James when he was a fellow in Iceland and is one of GRÓ FTP´s valued academic partners in the University of Iceland, frequently supervising our Quality Management scholarship recipients. The group were on a visit to the Icelandic embassy in Lilongwe and dropped in to visit James and see the Fisheries Research Station in Monkey Bay. The group heard about his current research into ''Fish Value Chain Development and Risk Profile Analysis'' and discussed his progress since the fellowship programme in Iceland and potential future collaboration.