The Faculty of Agriculture has recruited 3 academic staff. Their field of interests are highlighted in their short biographies below. We wish them a successful career at the Faculty and the University.
Ms Hudaa Neetoo joined the department of AFS of FoA in August
of 2013. Her area of specialization is microbiology and food safety. Prior to
joining academia, she worked as Microbiologist and Head of Laboratories in a
tuna processing industry, Thon des Mascareignes Ltee. As a budding researcher,
Hudaa wants to initiate intra and inter-departmental collaborations with
various colleagues but she also wants to maintain industrial ties. Hudaa hopes
that her academic career will enable her to give back to the community through
outreach activities, student mentoring and graduate empowerment programs.
Before
joining the University as academic, Bhoyroo Vishwakalyan worked as Associate
Research Scientist at the Mauritius Oceanography Institute. He has completed
his Ph. D in Orchid conservation and evolution. He has served at the Faculty of
Agriculture since 2006 as part-time lecturer and joined as a full-time academic
in August 2013. The main research areas are classical Botany, Molecular
Biology, Plant Ecology and Conservation Biology. As a marine biologist he has
participated in scientific expeditions and deep sea exploration in the Indian
Ocean. He also has worked in Coral conservation initiatives and fish taxonomy.
He is currently involved in the setting up of a national database of living
resources along with other colleagues of the faculty.
Mahindra Chooneea joined the
University of Mauritius as full-time lecturer in the field of Agronomy as from
January 2013. He was awarded his MPhil
in the field of Crop Production in the year 2009. Formerly, he was working as Technical Officer
(Wildlife) at the National Parks and Conservation Service of the Ministry of
Agro-Industry &Food Security and was involved in several national projects
such as National Fruit Bat Survey, National Crow Control Project, Invasive
Alien Species Control Programme & Terrestrial Biodiversity Conservation. He actively participated in several scientific
islet expeditions (Boa translocation & Flora Conservation-Round Island,
Gunner’s Coin, Flat Island and Gabriel Islet).
He was also involved in collaborative conservation work with
international institutions like Kew Garden, Jersey and Conservatoire Botanique
Nationale de Brest.
His fields of expertise are crop
production, agronomy, irrigation, soil fertility and landscaping. He is currently involved in research in the field
of Climate Smart Agriculture and Landscaping.
