MSc, MSc

Doctoral Student

Isabel Mank is a doctoral student at the Institute of Global Health since January 2017. Her PhD project links childhood undernutrition to agricultural practices and weather variability in a rural area of Burkina Faso, West Africa. Together with a local research partner and a team of field workers, she set up a semi-quantitative survey collecting information on anthropometric characteristics, nutritional recalls, and crop planting.

Isabel is especially interested in multidisciplinary research targeting vulnerable population groups. Her research and work experience cover adaptation and mitigation to environmental circumstances, risk and disaster management, and water and sanitation projects. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a researcher and intern in development cooperation and conducted small research projects focusing on health in Togo, India and Sudan.

Education

Mank I, Belesova K, Bliefernicht J, Traoré I, Wilkinson P, Danquah I, Sauerborn R (2021). The Impact of Rainfall Variability on Diets and Undernutrition of Young Children in Rural Burkina Faso. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 693281. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.693281

Sorgho R, Mank I, Kagoné M, Souares A, Danquah I, Sauerborn R (2020). “We will always ask ourselves the question of how to feed the family”: Subsistence farmers’ perceptions on adaptation to climate change in Burkina Faso. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 7200. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197200

Mank I, Vandormael A, Traoré I, Ouédraogo WA, Sauerborn R, Danquah I (2020). Dietary habits associated with growth development of children aged < 5 years in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System, Burkina Faso. Nutr J 19, 81 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-020-00591-3

Nayna Schwerdtle P, Mcmichael C, Mank I, Sauerborn R, Danquah I, Bowen K (2020). Health and migration in the context of a changing climate: A systematic literature assessment. Environmental Research Letters (in press). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab9ece

Karst IG, Mank I, Traoré I, Sorgho R, Stückemann K-J, Simboro S, Sié A, Franke J,  Sauerborn R (2020). Estimating Yields of Household Fields in Rural Subsistence Farming Systems to Study Food Security in Burkina Faso. Remote Sens. 12(11), 1717. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12111717 (shared first and last authorship)

Mank I, Traoré I, Sauerborn R (2018). Linear growth retardation of children living in the grain storage of Burkina Faso: A baseline cohort study on childhood undernutrition, subsistence agriculture and weather variability. 55. Wissenschaftlicher Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Ernährung (DGE). March 7-9, 2018. Hohenheim University, Stuttgart, Germany.

Mank I, Belesova K, Diboulo E, Franke J, Sorgho R, Traoré I, Wilkinson P, Sauerborn R (2017). Climate change impact on child undernutrition. Annual Congress of the German IPCC Focal Point. February 20-21, 2017. Nauen/ Berlin, Germany.

• Doctoral Fellowship, Landesgraduiertenförderung (LGF), 2017-2020

• DAAD Scholarship 2017 for her field work in Burkina Faso

• Scientific award 2016 given by the Austrian Gas and Water Association (ÖVGW) for her Master thesis on risk preparedness in Austria within the ETIA program

• Scientific award 2015 given by the Vienna Municipal Department for Environmental Matters together with the Municipal Department Vienna Water for her Master thesis on risk preparedness in Austria within the ETIA program

• Catharina Pijls Foundation Incentive Prize 2013 for her Master thesis on water management in Sudan within the Global Health program