From tackling climate and public health challenges in West Africa to strengthening disaster resilience in Cuba, scholars participating in Queen Elizabeth Scholars (QES) initiatives at Western have contributed to research with real-world impact.
For Amanatou Beye Gueye, a visiting scholar from Senegal hosted in Western's department of geography and environment, the experience provided an opportunity to deepen research on a growing public health concern.
"With the rise of diseases like dengue in my country, I wanted to understand the mechanisms linking climate and transmission in order to contribute to prevention and the strengthening of health systems," she said.
The QES program supports reciprocal global exchanges that help emerging researchers build expertise and collaborate across borders. Western has participated in the program since 2014, most recently through initiatives connecting partners in West Africa and Cuba. As the university's two most recent QES initiatives conclude, they leave behind lasting partnerships and a growing community of scholars.
West Africa: Climate, livelihoods and gender equality
The QES Advanced Scholars West Africa Program supported doctoral and early-career scholars from eligible West African countries and Canada, with research aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 5 (Gender Equality).
Between 2021 and 2025, two Western PhD scholars completed placements in Ghana, while 16 scholars from West Africa completed placements at Western. Visiting scholars represented institutions in Senegal, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia.
Gueye was one of them. She described QES as an opportunity to develop new skills in an international research environment while contributing to global solutions.
"Programs like the QES are important because they train a new generation of leaders who can collaborate across borders to address global challenges." - Amanatou Beye Gueye, visiting scholar from Senegal who studied at Western
Chérif Issifou, a scholar in the West Africa program, used the placement to strengthen his methodological skills and advance research grounded in community knowledge and everyday practice. At his home university in Benin, Issifu studies how caregivers' traditional and locally developed feeding practices influence child nutrition.
"Despite Benin's abundant natural food resources, the prevalence of child malnutrition remains high, particularly in rural communities," he said. "My study aims to discover, improve and preserve these practices in order to combat malnutrition."
Cuba: Disaster resilience and interdisciplinary learning
A second QES initiative - Scholars Network for Building Disaster Resilient Communities - began in 2019 and connected Western with Cuban partners.
Led by Western engineering professors Clare Robinson and Ashraf El Damatty, with support from engineering and health sciences faculty, the project trained scholars to help safeguard communities and critical infrastructure as climate-driven extremes intensify.
Clare Robinson
Over the course of the project, 25 scholars participated through outbound industry placements and inbound research exchanges, including undergraduate and graduate students from Western and partner institutions in Cuba. Their work included hazard and risk mapping, infrastructure analysis and social and health risk assessments.
Steven Pitsadiotis, a fourth-year Western engineering student who completed an industry placement in Cuba in 2023, said the experience strengthened skills beyond technical training.
"We were introduced to a new country with different ways of doing things. I realized I had to adjust and adapt to how work was done in Cuba," he said.
Lise Laporte, senior director at Western International, said participants strengthened both technical and interpersonal skills through the program.
"Participants significantly strengthened their technical expertise, gained deeper cultural awareness and improved their language skills," she said.
Building partnerships that last
A central goal of both initiatives was to strengthen institutional collaboration, ensuring that partnerships would not rely on a single researcher or funding cycle.
Melanie Katsivo, lead on the West Africa project and associate director (partnerships and programs) at the Africa Institute, said QES provided an opportunity to formalize connections in a sustainable way.
"This gave us an opportunity to really establish institutional relationships that go beyond one faculty member," Katsivo said.
Although the funding period has ended, she said partnerships remain active. Beyond mobility numbers, success was measured through scholar reports and longer-term outcomes, including progress on theses, publications and continued engagement.
"We created a network of scholars - a very active network - still engaging with Western," Katsivo said.
Research shaped by lived experience
Gabriel Martínez Licea, a Cuban scholar in civil and environmental engineering, examined resilience from a complementary perspective, focusing on affordability, sustainability and material efficiency in housing systems. His research explores optimized ferrocement slab design as a durable, environmentally responsible option for communities frequently affected by hurricanes.
"I return to Cuba as a better-prepared professional, equipped with concrete tools to advance research in resilient infrastructure and to help train the next generation of engineers in my country," he said.
QES Scholars from Cuba who studied at Western, (L to R) Gerardo Pérez Martínez and Gabriel Martínez Licea. (Western International)
For Gerardo Pérez Martínez, the project connected directly to lived experience. Growing up in hurricane-affected Cuba shaped his interest in infrastructure resilience and the cascading impacts of system failures, such as in electricity transmission.
"I witnessed firsthand the devastating impact hurricanes can have on critical infrastructure," Pérez Martínez said. "The collapse of transmission towers not only disrupts power supply but also hinders recovery efforts."
His research focuses on understanding how transmission line towers respond to hurricane wind loads - work with implications for public safety and post-disaster recovery.
"Programs like QES build lasting bridges - not as isolated initiatives, but as alliances between institutions that endure over time," he said.
Learn more about how Western is preparing future leaders and global citizens.
