Alon Warburg

I visited CIDEIM when I was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Yale University working on leishmaniasis with Robert Tesh and David Young. We were involved in a project on cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis together with a team from the Instituto Nacional de Salud in Bogota. We were (or rather David Young was) requested by Nancy Saravia to come and assist with entomological studies on sand fly vectors of leishmaniasis that were being conducted by Bruno Travi, James Montoya and others. During that visit I was able to make arrangements to come to Colombia for a longer period and help with studies on sand flies as well as establish a sand fly colony.

I definitely view my period at CIDEIM as one of the best periods in my life. I would have been glad to stay on indefinitely – but had other commitments and money was short. We published two papers from our research at CIDEIM. Undoubtedly the most important one being the one where we describe a new species of Gregarine (parasites of sand flies) and named it after Nancy (Ostrovska K. Warburg A. & Montoya-Lerma J. (1990). Ascogregarina saraviae, N. Sp. (Apicomplexa: Lecudinidae) in Lutzomyia lichyi (Diptera: Psychodidae). J Protozool, 37: 69-70.)

What I most remember about my experience at CIDEIM:

Working with young scientists eager to learn. Working in the Tropics (this was my 1st experience).

Tamales for lunch on Fridays

The CHIVA ride between discos and night clubs in down town Cali

Nabor’s sense of humor in professing with a serious face that his neighborhood (which I remember was on a hill side) was a lot better than Nancy’s because there were not so many vehicles, the air was fresher and neighbors more friendly.

My wife Katy teaching James English – success (without taking credit for James’s scientific achievements) is evidenced by James completing his PhD at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine a few years later.

An anecdote: Nancy invited us to visit and collect flies with James Montoya and Bruce Alexander. So we flew all over Colombia with our aspirators, cages, and most importantly “Los hámsteres”. During the flight from Bucaramanga to Cucuta, someone kicked the cage and the hamsters escaped. James had to crawl under the passengers’ feet explaining all the time that he was looking for – yes you guessed it – furry, cuddly and totally harmless rodents that may or may not have entered some lady’s hand bag or may be crawling into some gentleman’s trouser leg. To his credit he did manage to apprehend the fugitives before landing”.