A young Zimbabwean scientist who has been championing the resurrection of a traditional African grain, sorghum, won a R100 000 fellowship at the second annual Women in Science awards in Johannesburg this week.
Sorghum fan Bethule Nyamambi will use the pan-African Woman Scientist fellowship to study in South Africa — most likely at the University of KwaZulu-Natal — after finishing her animal science doctorate at the University of Zimbabwe. It’s a welcome boost after five lonely years of study, when a series of supervisors abandoned her by emigrating, and petrol queues, inflation and food shortages became a fact of life in Harare.
Bethule’s study of grain-fed chickens has had beneficial spin-offs for sickly Aids patients. ”In the wake of HIV/Aids it has become an increasingly versatile crop to grow and use, not only for feeding chickens but for better nutrition. Sorghum has been a great cheaper alternative for those that have been willing to substitute it for maize.”
And the grain comes into its own during droughts, she says. The last two dry spells ”made my research all the more important. We made huge strides in helping people plant sorghum and utilise it to feed chickens for their protein sources.”
The winner of a R100 000 gender research fellowship is University of Witswatersrand (Wits) PhD student Nomvuselelo Songelwa, who drove to the posh Sandton awards from a muddy vegetable farm outside Nelspruit. Transkei-born Songelwa is doing a case study on the impact of land redistribution on women but says city slickers have to be careful about imposing their views on others: ”People in rural areas have a negative attitude towards anything that has to do with this buzz word gender relations. They don’t like how it has been packaged and presented to them. There is animosity — and some of it comes from women.”
There was no animosity when it came time to recognise women working in traditionally ”macho” areas of science.
Two scientists from the Mother City now have an extra reason to celebrate Women’s Day. UCT nuclear chemistry doctoral student Freda Morris walked off with R100 000 for her ability to accurately measure radioactivity in just about anything, using rare, large and expensive equipment such as a liquid scintillation counting system. Meanwhile, cosmetics company L’Oreal awarded R30 000 to University of the Western Cape’s Dr Janet Kelso, a world leader in the field of bioinformatics, which uses information technology and the latest in computers to decipher the mysteries of our genes and solve diseases such as cancer.
But other regions did not go unrewarded. Durban biologist Patricia Berjak rescues plants from extinction by finding new and innovative ways to preserve fussy seeds that are very particular about hot and cold, wet and dry conditions. The University of Kwazulu-Natal lecturer walked off the stage at the Sandton Hilton last night with R50 000 and the prestigious Distinguished Woman Scientist award.
And Wits’ Dr Helen Rees, who works at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, won R50 000 for research which benefits women. — SciDev.Net
* Coverage of the Women in Science awards, as well as related stories, will be in the September issue of the Science and Development Network’s newsletter for sub-Saharan Africa, which will have a special focus on science, communication and gender. To request an electronic copy, email [email protected]. To download copies of existing newsletters or to find out more, please visit their website at www.scidev.net