Michael Keenan is PhD Candidate at Wageningen University and Research. His dissertation focuses on understanding how risk and market access affect smallholder farmers’ marketing and investment decisions, agricultural households’ livelihoods, and internal conflict within agricultural-based economies. To understand these relationships, His research combines behavioral, theoretical, and empirical analysis at the intra-household level, household-level, and mesoeconomic level.

He is passionate about applying quantitative methods and big data to a range of economic development issues. His research is now expanding into understanding gender gaps in smallholder agriculture, urban migration patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the effects of digital innovations on rural areas' food systems.

He has been based in Nairobi, Kenya for the past three years and has experience conducting research in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. I enjoy travelling, reading, and spending time with friends and family.

In this episode, He talks about pursuing a career in East Africa and his PhD Work

The Vulnerable Scientist is a Kenyan-based podcast that focuses on scientists' stories about their daily lives, work, and how they got to where they are. I am your host Sarah Nyakeri, a scientist, informal science communicator and a hiker. I am a multidisciplinary individual that does digital marketing and website design during my free time.

The main questions asked that scientists are expected to answer vulnerable are: How are you, Introduce yourself, how did you become a scientist, What are the highs and lows you have experienced in your science career, tell the listeners about your hobbies, what question would you like to answer that has not been asked and how do you feel after having this conversation.

Why did I start this podcast? You might ask. When doing my MSc project, my experiments started to fail at a certain period and it was very frustrating. I thought, If I finally get a new vaccine target for CBPP in cows, it would be all smiles but no one will ever know what I went through. I also wondered how many scientists were going through the same rough patch but did not openly talk about it?

I enjoy asking questions since I am a naturally curious person. Feedback from the audience, including scientists and non-scientists, is the main motivation I message scientists or accept their request to be on the podcast, schedule an interview, edit audio, design the artwork, post it, and share it on social media platforms. It is a full-time job that requires me to spend from my pocket with no monetary returns, but I enjoy it.

If you want to be Vulnerable on the show, send me an audio message either on speak pipe (https://www.speakpipe.com/VulnerableScientistVoicemail ) or anchor (https://anchor.fm/thevulnerablescientist/message). Feel free to reach out too if you want to talk about a certain topic in the science career space or anything as a scientist that might have nothing to with science but affects scientists. The podcast is on social media @TVscientistPod and Website; TheVulnerablescientist.com. You can support the show (https://www.patreon.com/thevulnerablescientist) on Patreon or Paypal sarahnyanchera(at)gmail or Mpesa at (254)0718896962 under Sarah Nyakeri.

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