Several of Africa’s top women scientists have been honored at ceremonies to mark the founding of a new Pan African University.
The Kwame Nkrumah Science Awards for 2011 went to seven women for outstanding achievements and valuable scientific discoveries. The annual prize carries with it a $20,000 check and a silver medal.
Etheresia Pretorius of South Africa won for electron microscopy research into inflammations within the human body. She calls microscopy an open field because it’s an older technique, often overlooked by scientists looking for something more exciting to investigate.
“I try to use the techniques of microscopy to find something new, something that might be used as a screening tool, a cheap screening tool used to detect disease long before it’s visible in the human,” Pretorius said.
Pretorius tells VOA she plans to use a large part of her prize money to give orphan girls in her home town a chance to explore possible careers in science. “We’ve got a lot of orphan girls, and there’s an orphanage not very far from my hometown, Pretoria, and I thought myself and my husband would like to contribute to a girl, [a] woman, to come up and study something, some way,” she said.
Other winners include Rose Gana Fomban Leke of Cameroon for her groundbreaking research on prevention of malaria and other parasitic infections, and Ebtehal El-Demerdash of Egypt, for research on modern drugs used in treating forms of cancer most resistant to chemotherapy.
- December 14 2011 | 117 Notes - Comments - Read More →
