Maxime Madder

Dr Maxime Madder is a senior researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium.  He graduated in 1991 as a biologist from the University of Ghent, Belgium and completed his PhD on the ecology of ticks in 1999. At present Maxime Madder has 15 years of experience in the study of ticks and tick-borne diseases and has been involved particularly in research aimed at improving animal health in resource-poor farming areas of Central and Southern Africa (Rwanda, Zambia and South Africa). In the community based-project in South Africa his involvement is more focused on development of new communication technologies (electronic data collection and training) to gain insights in the priorities in animal health and socio-economics of the Mnisi community and to train animal health professionals.

Dr Maxime Madder has been involved from the start in 2005 in the development of a web-based MSc course in Veterinary Tropical Diseases, an initiative initiated by the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, University of Pretoria, South Africa. His involvement was mainly on vectors (tsetse and ticks) for which he developed interactive courses and web sites.

In the near future Dr Maxime Madder will be involved in new projects in tropical countries in which his focus will be on the development of mobile data-transfer systems that will improved diseases control strategies.

Most of his work related to eLearning and tick research has been presented at International Conferences around the world.