Dr Frances M. Hawkes completed her PhD (2009-2013) at the University of Greenwich, where she was supervised by Professors Gabriella Gibson and Steve Torr (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine). Her PhD project developed cutting edge 3D tracking to follow mosquitoes flying in low light intensities, the results of which allowed Dr Hawkes to develop a prototype trap for outdoor biting mosquitoes. After a post-doctoral period at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she undertook research supporting incrimination of the vectors of zoonotic malaria in Malayasia, she has since continued this approach of conducting laboratory and field research into vector behaviour and then using the findings to develop sampling strategies for insects such as malaria mosquitoes. This work was the focus of 2015 documentary commissioned by the BBC called “Living with Malaria” and was recognised as part of a Queen’s Anniversary Prize awarded to the University of Greenwich in 2020 for Smart, Sustainable Pest Management. She holds several patents and licensing agreements. Dr Hawkes continues to lead research into the ecology of zoonotic malaria vectors in Southeast Asia and how land use change may be driving disease spillover, and on the surveillance and assessment of British mosquitoes of potential public health importance. Her research on mosquito surveillance has been applied to the blackfly vectors of parasites that cause onchocerciasis, also called river blindness, and she currently leads a number of research threads on developing blackfly surveillance techniques for disease elimination surveillance, including entomological capacity development in West Africa.

Dr Hawkes collaborates with research institutes including Kenya Medical Research Institute, Institute de Recherche en Sciences de le Sante (Burkina Faso) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. She partners with colleagues in academia such as Universiti Malaysia Sabah (Malaysia), Imperial College London (UK), Osun State University (Nigeria), University of Glasgow (UK), University of Energy and Natural Resources (Ghana), Menzies School of Health Research (Australia), Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania) and Lancaster University (UK).  Outside of academia, Dr Hawkes collaborates with charities such as Sightsavers, industry partners such as Biogents GmbH (Germany), and public health bodies including the UK Health Security Agency and National Onchocerciasis Elimination Committees. Most of Dr Hawkes’ research involves interdisciplinary collaborations across natural and social sciences and she has worked with artists and historians, including in curating a national exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society in London.

As a member of the Vector Control Working Groups of both Roll Back Malaria and the Asia-Pacific Malaria Elimination Network, Dr Hawkes contributes to developing strategy and responsive research to achieve malaria elimination within a generation and has trained entomologists from the National Malaria Control Programmes of Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. She also currently sits on the steering committee of DISSECT – Developing Innovative Scalable Solutions to Entomology Gaps and Cross-Border Transmission of Onchocerciasis and has been an invited expert of the WHO’s Onchocerciasis Technical Advisory Subgroup.

Currently co-supervising four PhD students, Dr Hawkes also contributes to lectures and module leadership across BSc programmes in Biology and Environmental Science and Post-graduate taught programmes, including dissertation and independent project supervision. She has contributed guest lectures to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Oregon and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

• Akoton R, Sovegnon PM, Djihinto OY, Medjigbodo AA, Agonhossou R, Adegnika AA, Gibson G, Djouaka R, Hawkes FM, Djogbénou LS. Using non-insecticidal traps indoors can complement insecticide-treated nets to target resistant malaria vectors. Parasites & Vectors (in press).

• Cooper AN, Malmgren L, Hawkes FM, Farrell IW, Hien DFdS, Hopkins RJ, Lefèvre T, Stevenson PC (2025) Identifying mosquito plant hosts from ingested nectar secondary metabolites, Scientific Reports, 15:6488. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88933-1

• Adeleke MA, Opara KN, Mafuyai HB, Nwoke BEB, Surakat OA, Akinde SB, Nwoke M, Chikieze F, Yaro C, Mmaduabuchi UG, Igbe M, Makata E, Oyediran F, Anyaike C, Tongjura JD, Hawkes FM, Iwalewa ZO (2024) Improving onchocerciasis elimination surveillance: trials of odour baited Esperanza Window Traps to collect blackfly vectors and real-time qPCR detection of Onchocerca volvulus in blackfly pools, Parasites & Vectors, 17(471). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-024-06554-5

• Cheke RA, Hawkes FM, Carnaghi M (2024) Short- and long-range dispersal by members of the Simulium damnosum Complex (Diptera: Simuliidae), Vectors of Onchocerciasis: a review, Insects, 15:606. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/15/8/606

• Carnaghi M, Mandelli F, Feugère L, Joiner J, Young S, Belmain SR, Hopkins RJ, Hawkes FM. (2024) Protocol for rearing and using Anopheles mosquitoes for tracking and behavioural characterization in wind tunnel bioassays, STAR Protocols, 5:3, 103180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103180

• Medlock JM, Hawkes FM, Cheke RA, Gibson G, Abbott AJ, Cull B, Gandy S, Hardy H, Acott T, Vaux AGC. (2024) Mosquito diversity and abundance in English wetlands – empirical evidence to guide a prediction tool for wetland suitability for mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.52004/2054930x-20231002

• Shepherd-Gorringe M, Pettit M, Hawkes FM (2024) Lethal and sublethal impacts of membrane-fed ivermectin are concentration-dependent in Anopheles coluzzii, Parasites & Vectors, 17:228. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-024-06287-5

• Vaux A, Abbott A, Johnston C, Hawkes FM, Hopkins RJ, Cull B, Gibson G, Cheke RA, Callaghan A, Medlock J. (2024) An update on the ecology, seasonality and distribution of Culex modestus in England, Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association. https://doi.org/10.52004/jemca20231003

• Akoton R, Sawadogo SP, Tossou E, Nikiema AS, Tchigossou G, Sovegnon PM, Djogbenou L, Zeukeng F, Hawkes FM, Dabire RK, Djouaka R, Gibson G (2024) Using artificial odours to optimize attractiveness of Host Decoy Traps to malaria vectors, Journal of Medical Entomology, tjae010. https://doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjae010

• Carnaghi M, Mandelli F, Feugère L, Joiner J, Young S, Belmain SR, Hopkins RJ, Hawkes FM (2024) Visual and thermal stimuli modulate mosquito-host contact with implications for improving malaria vector control tools, iScience, 27(1):108578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.108578

• Hardy H, Harte SJ, Hopkins RJ, Mnyone L, Hawkes FM (2023) The influence of manure-based organic fertilisers on the oviposition behaviour of Anopheles arabiensis, Acta Tropica, 244:106954. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2023.106954

• David MR, Maciel-de-Freitas R, Peterson MT, Bray D, Hawkes FM, Mandela Fernández-Grandon G, Young S, Gibson G, Hopkins RJ (2023) Aedes aegypti oviposition-sites choice under semi-field conditions, Medical & Veterinary Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1111/mve.12670

• Hawkes FM, Zeil J, Gibson G (2022) Vision in Mosquitoes, Chapter 19 in Ignell R, et al., eds. (2022) Sensory Ecology of Disease Vectors, Wageningen Academic Publishers, pp. 511-533. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-932-9

• Hardy H, Hopkins RJ, Mnyone L, Hawkes FM (2022) Manure and mosquitoes: life history traits of two malaria vector species enhanced by larval exposure to cow dung, whilst chicken dung has a strong negative effect. Parasites & Vectors, 15(472). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-022-05601-3

• Hien AS, Sangaré I, Ouattara ELP, Sawadogo SP, Soma DD, Hamidou M, Diabaté A, Bonnet E, Ridde V, Fournet F, Hawkes FM, Kaupra C, Bouyer J, Abd-Alla AMM, Dabiré RK (2022) Chikungunya (Togaviridae) and dengue 2 (Flaviviridae) viruses detected from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Burkina Faso by qRT-PCR technique: Preliminary results and perspective for molecular characterization of arbovirus circulation in vector populations. Frontiers in Tropical Diseases, 3:920224. doi: 10.3389/fitd.2022.920224

• Zembere K, Chirombo J, Nasoni P, McDermott D, Divala L, Hawkes FM, Jones CM (2022) The human-baited host decoy trap (HDT) is an efficient sampling device for exophagic malaria mosquitoes within irrigated lands in southern Malawi. Scientific Reports, 12, 3428. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07422-x.

• Hawkes, FM, Hopkins, RJ (2021) ‘The Mosquito: An Introduction’, in Hall, M & Tamir, D (eds), Mosquitopia: The Place of Pests in a Healthy World. Routledge, pp. 16-31, DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003056034.

• Talom, BAD, Enyong, P, Cheke, RA, Djouaka, R, Hawkes, FM (2021) Capture of high numbers of Simulium vectors can be achieved with Host Decoy Traps to support data acquisition in the onchocerciasis elimination endgame. Acta Tropica, 221: 106020.

• Carnaghi, M, Belmain, SR, Hopkins, RJ, Hawkes, FM (2021) Multimodal synergisms in host stimuli drive landing response in malaria mosquitoes. Scientific Reports, 11, 7379. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86772-4.

• López-Peña, D, Hawkes, FM, Gibson, GI, Johnston, C, Vaux, AGC, Lis-Cantín, Á, Medlock, JM, Cheke, RA (2021) Mosquito Magnet® traps as a potential means of monitoring blackflies of medical and veterinary importance. Medical and Veterinary Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1111/mve.12530.

• Sawadogo, SP, Nikièma, AS, Coulibal, S, Koala, L, Niang, A, Bougouma, C, Bougma, RW, Gnankine, O, Hawkes, FM, Boakye, D, Dabiré, RK (2021) Community implementation of human landing and non-human landing collection methods for Wucheria bancrofti vectors. Journal of Parasitology and Vector Biology, 13(1), 41-50. https://doi.org/10.5897/JPVB2020.0407.

• Hawkes, FM, Medlock, JM, Vaux, AGC, Cheke, RA, Gibson G (2020) Wetland Mosquito Survey Handbook: Assessing suitability of British wetlands for mosquitoes. Natural Resources Institute, Chatham, UK, http://www.wetlandlife.org/images/images/Project_outputs/NRI-PHE-UoG_Wetland_Mosquito_Survey_Handbook_v1-indexed.pdf.

• Tang, JY, Kosgei, J, Ochomo, E, Ndenga, BA, Ghiaseddin, R, Lobo, NF, Hawkes, FM, O’Tousa, JE (2020) Impact of visual features on capture of Aedes aegypti with host decoy traps (HDT). Medical & Veterinary Entomology, https://doi.org/10.1111/mve.12482.

• Davidson, J.R., Baskin, R.N., Hasan, H., Burton, T.A., Wardiman, M., Rahma, N., Saputra, F.R., Aulya, M.N., Wahid, I., Syafruddin, D, Hawkes, F.M., Lobo, N.F. (2020) Characterization of vector communities and biting behavior in South Sulawesi with host decoy traps and human landing catches. Parasites Vectors 13, 329. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-04205-z.

• Hawkes FM, Manin BO, Cooper A, Daim S, Homathevi R, Jelip J, Husin T, Chua TH (2019) Vector compositions change across forested to deforested ecotones in emerging areas of zoonotic malaria transmission in Malaysia. Scientific Reports, 9:13312 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49842-2).

• Abong'o B, Yu X, Donnelly MJ, Geier M, Gibson G, Gimnig J, ter Kuile F, Lobo NF, Ochomo E, Munga S, Ombok M, Samuels A, Torr SJ and Hawkes FM (2018) Host Decoy Trap (HDT) with cattle odour is highly effective for collection of exophagic malaria vectors. Parasites and Vectors, 11:533 (https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-018-3099-7)

• Hawkes FM, Dabiré RK, Sawadogo SP, Torr SJ, Gibson G (2017) Exploiting Anopheles responses to thermal, odour and visual stimuli to improve surveillance and control of malaria. Scientific Reports, 7:17283 (http://rdcu.be/A0bE).

• Hawkes F, Manin BO, Ng SH, Torr SJ, Drakeley C, Chua TH, Ferguson HM (2017) Evaluation of electric nets as a means to sample mosquito vectors host-seeking on humans and primates. Parasites and Vectors, 10(338).

• Hawkes, FM and Gibson, G (2016) Seeing is believing: the nocturnal mosquito Anopheles coluzzii responds to visual host-cues when odour indicates a host is nearby. Parasites and Vectors, 9(320).

• Medlock, JM, Vaux, AGC, Gibson, G, Hawkes, FM, Cheke, RA (2014) Potential vector for West Nile virus prevalent in Kent. Veterinary Record, 175(11), 284-285.

• Whitehorn, LJ, Hawkes, FM, Dublon, IAN, (2013) Superplot3D: an open source GUI tool for 3d trajectory visualisation and elementary processing. Source Code for Biology and Medicine, 8(19).

• Hawkes, FM & Acott, TG (2013) People, environment and place: the function and significance of human hybrid relationships at an allotment in South East England. Local Environment, 18:10, 1117-1133, DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2013.787590.

• Hawkes, F, Young, S and Gibson, G (2012) Modification of spontaneous activity patterns in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae when presented with host-associated stimuli. Physiological Entomology, 37(3), pp. 233-240.

Dr Hawkes combines basic research in the laboratory and field with applied and operational research, particularly vector ecology in the face of global environmental change and anthropogenic interventions.

Her fundamental research on vector behaviour is driven by the joint aims of elucidating the precise behavioural sequences that facilitate key aspects of the insect’s life history and identifying potential behavioural targets that can be incorporated into new vector surveillance and control tools. This research pipeline emphasises the strong link between basic research and impact, including developing, prototyping, patenting and commercialising/ mainstreaming tools. For instance, Dr Hawkes developed a new trap for disease-carrying insects that exploits their behaviour, which was recognised under the UK honours system within a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education (2019). This work is continued in her current projects aimed at supporting the entomological surveillance necessary for verifying whether onchocerciasis has been in eliminated in operational transmission zones.

She is also interested in how vector ecology and behaviour may be impacted by human activities. These research themes include how land use change and deforestation may be driving spillover of zoonotic malaria in Southeast Asia and how climate adapted cultivation practices may create agroecological landscapes more suitable for malaria vectors.

Within NRI, Dr Hawkes is a member of the Behavioural Ecology Research Group and the Chemical Ecology Research Group, and the Centre on Sustainable Agriculture for One Health.

• BSc Environmental Science (module leader)

• MBiol/BSc Biology

• MSc Agriculture for Sustainable Development

• MSc Global Environmental Change

• PhD supervision

NIH “Emerging zoonotic malaria in Malaysia: linking human and mosquito surveillance with population genetic tools to evaluate adaptive human-human transmission risk” Role: Co-I (Apr 2022-2026, US$620,386)

Southeast Asia remains a global hotspot for emerging zoonotic infectious diseases with risk elevated in forested tropical regions undergoing intensive anthropogenic land-use change. The recent increase in transmission of the monkey malaria parasite Plasmodium knowlesi, endemic to Southeast Asia, exemplifies how these types of ecological linkage mechanisms can influence disease spill-over to humans. Alongside characterising P. knowlesi population genetic structure to understand transmission networks, this project aims to determine mosquito vector behavioural and landscape ecology factors contributing to increasing transmission of P. knowlesi in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.

Infrared & AI to diagnose and quantify Onchocerca volvulus in blackflies (Co-I)

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Nov 2021-Nov 2024, US$2.6 million)

Partners: University of Glasgow, Institute de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé Burkina Faso, Ifakara Health Institute Tanzania, Sightsavers International, Osun State University Nigeria, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Benin

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “Improved Simulium capture for onchocerciasis elimination surveillance and the spatial distribution of blackfly biting” Role: PI (Nov 2021-Mar 2026, US$1,425,861)

Entomological surveillance is at the heart of the onchocerciasis elimination framework proposed by the World Health Organization. This project aims to develop suitable methods for the intensive sampling required to verify the interruption of transmission and eventual elimination of the disease by:

1. testing and optimizing Esperanza Window Traps, Host Decoy Traps and oviposition traps for collecting the blackfly vectors of onchocerciasis,
2. increasing entomological capacity in key skills such as blackfly identification, dissection, cytotaxonomy and molecular parasite screening in endemic countries, and
3. determining the spatial distribution and intensity of vector biting, and therefore exposure risk, of different communities within transmission zones, using geostatistical modelling frameworks developed from contemporaneous entomological and serological field data.

MRC GCRF Global Infections Foundation Award “Human Decoy Trap; operational and social acceptability of novel tool to improve surveillance and control of mosquitoes and other disease vectors” Role: Co-I (Feb 2017-Jan 2019, £556,461)

Current tools for sampling malarial mosquitoes are time-consuming, ethically contentious and difficult to standardize. Accordingly, data between countries and regions cannot be reliably compared. This project tested a new, standardized and exposure-free mosquito trap, the Host Decoy Trap, against existing WHO-approved method the human landing catch and other techniques in a wide range of epidemiological and entomological settings in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Benin, resulting in a commercial prototype trap that can be used for outdoor-biting mosquitoes. Research also included a Participatory Technology Assessment of various sampling methods, highlighting the attributes valued by field staff tasked with mosquito surveillance.

NERC Valuing Nature: Health & Wellbeing “Taking the bite out of wetlands: Managing mosquitoes and the socio-ecological value of wetlands for wellbeing” Role: Researcher Co-I (Aug 2016-Jul 2020, £1,307,532)

The WetlandLIFE project explored the ecological, economic, social and cultural values associated with wetlands in England to better understand how to manage change into the future, alongside an ecological focus on mosquito management now and historically to support the recreational use of wetlands for the health and well-being of local human populations. The project delivered guidance for managing mosquitoes in the context of healthy wetland environments, art-science collaborations and artistic installations that encouraged engagement with mosquito discourses and the wetland environment, as well as sociological and historical scholarship on how English wetlands have shaped contemporary society, and economic valuations of wetlands and how those value may change under pressure from potential future mosquito-influenced futures.

All project outputs can be seen on the WetlandLIFE website: http://www.wetlandlife.org/project-outputs

Current Postgraduate Students

• Rosalia Joseph: Analysing gender disparities in malaria exposure in Sub-Saharan Africa (VC Scholarship; 2024-present).

• Lachlan Keneally: Relational and political ecology perspectives on urban food and commoning in Bristol (UK Food Systems Centre for Doctoral Training; 2023-present).

• Ainhoa Rodriguez-Pereira: The impact of Apicomplexan’s methylerythritol phosphate (MEP) pathway on gene regulation and behaviour of the host (BBSRC London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme [LIDo]; 2023-present).

• Monique Shepherd-Gorringe: Development of a novel, long-acting formulation for the treatment and prevention of malaria (Doctoral Training Alliance; 2018-present).

• Line management responsibilities

• Mentoring of Early Career Researchers

• Developing impact case studies for REF

• Reviewer for 10+ academic journals

• Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (Member since 2010)

• Member of Roll Back Malaria’s Vector Control Working Group (2018-)

• Member of Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network’s Vector Control Working Group (2018-)

• Member of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (2012-)

• World Health Organization’s Onchocerciasis Technical Advisory Subgroup invited expert (2022-)

• Technical Steering Committee member of DISSECT-Developing Innovative Scalable Solutions to Entomology Gaps and Cross-Border Transmission of Onchocerciasis (2022-2024)

• Scientific Reports Editorial Board Member (2018-2021)

• External examiner (“opponent”) for PhD thesis defence at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, SLU

• Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education (2019)

• Awarded full scholarship to attend the Biology of Vector-Borne Diseases Training Programme, University of Idaho (2018)

• Winner of Swiss Malaria Group’s #EndMalaria video competition (2017)

• Awarded Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Scholarship (2009-2013)

• University of Greenwich Inaugural Student of the Year (2012)

• Selected to present PhD Research to Members of Parliament, House of Commons, supported by the Society of Biology (2012)

• Best Oral Presentation at Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene’s Research in Progress Conference (2012)

• Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate Degree (2009)

• Prize for Best Honours Dissertation in the School of Science (2009)