Entomology professor Esther Ngumbi became interested in the chemical communication between plants and insects when she was growing up on her family’s farm in Kenya.
“Halfway through the growing season, I would actually watch a lot of our work go to waste because insects would come and eat a lot of our crops … meaning we won’t have food,” she said. “I was very curious how these insects managed to find our plants.”
That curiosity led Ngumbi to research ways to make plants more resilient. But she encountered another problem: Her research was reaching other scientists, but not the people who were directly impacted by the issues she sought to find solutions for.
Knowing her research was important to farmers and consumers, Ngumbi took it upon herself to become a trained science communicator. That means connecting with the public and sharing research in an understandable way without jeopardizing accuracy.
“It’s an ethical responsibility,” she said. “(The public deserves) it. We need to step out and tell them what we’re doing.”
Her decision to be a better communicator was a momentous one. Ngumbi has over 100 essays and op-eds in numerous prominent publications, including Scientific American, El País, NPR, and others. She has given talks to students of all levels, in the U.S. and Kenya. This is all in addition to teaching students at the U of I and continuing research.
In 2021, she was honored with the Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. To make her writing accessible, Ngumbi embraces analogies, personal stories, and relatability.
“I think it makes you fall in love with what you’re doing again and again,” Ngumbi said, of her work in science communication. “You’re like, ‘Damn, I have such a good job. How did I get so lucky?’”
Editor’s note: This profile has been edited for length. Read the full version here. This story first appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of The Quadrangle.
