Esther Ndumi Ngumbi is a Kenyan entomologist and academic who is currently Assistant Professor of Entomology and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

[3] The first time she left her village was to attend Kenyatta University, where she earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

[10] She studies the way that herbivores, plants, micro-organisms and insects make use of volatile and non-volatile chemical signals.

[9] These include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that mediate conversations between plants, herbivores and microbes.

[15] Ngumbi is an active science communicator and has contributed to Mail & Guardian, The Moth, Scientific American and the World Economic Forum.