Irene Aurelia Tarimo is a Tanzanian environmental scientist, biologist and educator. She currently serves as Head of Department for the Department of Environmental Studies at the Open University of Tanzania, where she is also a lecturer and researcher. She previously served as a director at the LindiRegional Centre of the Open University of Tanzania in Lindi.
Education
Tarimo acquired her primary education in Mashati in the Rombo District of the Kilimanjaro Region. For her ordinary level secondary education she attended Weruweru Secondary School in Moshi and later joined Kilakala Girls High School in Morogoro for her advanced level secondary education. After competing her advanced secondary education, she enrolled at the Dar es Salaam Teachers College where she studied biology, chemistry and education. Upon finishing her course of study, she was employed by the Government of Tanzania as a secondary school teacher. She taught in several secondary schools, including Kifungilo Girls Secondary School, Morogoro Secondary School, Weruweru Girls Secondary School and Mwika High School. OUT began offering science courses in 1995 and Tarimo enrolled as a student at the university in the following year, balancing her studies and her teaching work. In 2003, she graduated from the Open University of Tanzania with a Bachelor of Science in Education. She was the first student to acquire a First Class degree in ten years of OUT since it was established in 1993. Having acquired this achievement she was awarded a Certificate of Hardworking and Good Academic Performance in Education, the Vice Chancellor's Award for the Overall Best Student at OUT and the Vice Chancellor's Award for the Best Female Student. She was also awarded a prize from the Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology. After her outstanding performance in undergraduate studies, Tarimo was offered scholarships for three Master's degree programmes. She opted to study at the University of Dar es Salaam and graduated with a Masters in Environmental Science in 2007. Though she had several employment opportunities, she chose to join the Open University of Tanzania, her alma mater, as a member of the academic staff in the Science, Technology and Environmental Studies School. She later pursued a doctoral degree at OUT, specializing in environmental pollution control and ecosystem modeling. She completed her thesis, Modeling of Municipal Wastewater Treatment in a System Consisting of Waste Stabilization Ponds, Constructed Wetlands and Fish Ponds in Tanzania, and was awarded a PhD by the Open University of Tanzania -sandwich with the University of Copenhagen in 2013. In 2016, she earned a certificate of protocol and etiquette from the Centre for Foreign Relations in Dar es Salaam.
Career
Tarimo served as a director of Lindi Regional Centre, a satellite branch of the Open University of Tanzania, from 2007 to 2013. During her tenure, enrollment at the centre grew significantly and, by 2013, 50 students from the centre had graduated and more than 200 were continuing with their studies. She left her mark in Lindi by sensitizing higher education in the region. While serving as director, she initiated a fundraising campaign that enabled the centre to purchase its own vehicle. Through additional fundraising efforts, the centre acquired more than 100 acres of land on which to build permanent buildings for offices and students' services. In 2014 she managed to get a 3-hectares plot at Ngongo Lindi for Nane Nane shows to market OUT programmes. Tarimo currently serves as a departmental head and lecturer at OUT, teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and as an environmental science researcher. Her primary research interests are pollution control and waste management, particularly natural wastewater treatment methods using constructed wetlands and the environmental impact of heavy metals.
