RISE is a project that supports African scientists and engineers pursuing master's degrees and/or PhDs on the continent through university-based, regional research and teaching networks in selected disciplines.
The RISE community is made up of scientists and educators with big dreams, hailing from 18 different African countries. The goals of the project are to strengthen research and teaching in African universities and build capacity in science, technology and innovation to stimulate development in sub-Saharan Africa.
The students, graduates, and staff are at the heart of our project.
These are their stories.
From the Oil Rig to the Lab: A Young Woman’s Journey to Becoming a Materials Engineer (AMSEN)
by Alan Anderson
June 15, 2017
Esther Mbu is one of the newest members of the African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN), having begun her master’s program at the University of Ghana in September 2016. She joined AMSEN a few months after that, thanks to the assistance of her supervisor, Dr. David Dodoo-Arhin. She brought with her a lifelong love of science and a rare degree of field experience, which she gained in the demanding and male-dominated, rough-and-tumble oil fields around central Africa.
Esther was born in Cameroon, where her father was a civil engineer and her mother a primary school teacher. Her father truly loved engineering, and taught Esther extra mathematics at home when she was in primary school.
“My dad strongly encouraged me to do science,” she said during the 2017 AMSEN meeting in Accra. “He was my first point of contact. But he didn’t have to push hard, because I have always been passionate about discovery. I love experimenting with materials.”
She noted that her whole family was dedicated to learning and service, and all members played a role in supporting her dreams. One of her brothers sometimes made her read newspaper articles out loud to improve her diction; he studied law and became a human rights consultant, then changed careers to become a Baptist minister. The other brother spent time teaching her science subjects at home during the holidays; he went into computer science, and then he, too, decided to go into the ministry. Her mother and big sister kept her disciplined and supported her dreams. “I come from a true African family where the extended family is as close as the nuclear family, and I must say everyone played their role the best they could in helping me become the engineer I am today.”
Her parents both thought she would become a medical doctor, but Esther realized around her high school years that she had a blood phobia. “I just didn’t want to work with it on a daily basis,” she recalled. Esther was fortunate to attend Saker Baptist College in Limbe, Cameroon, which she called one of the best boarding schools in the country. It was in high school that her love of chemistry really took hold — thanks to an outstanding chemistry teacher, Mrs. Elisabeth Diobe, whose zeal for the subject was infectious and raised Esther’s interest to an entirely new level.
When it came time for university studies, she was admitted into the University of Buea. It was at Buea that she fully confirmed and focused her dreams on a career in science and engineering. “At the university, I was once again privileged to have a teacher who shared my passion for both chemistry and engineering. I just saw through her that science is so beautiful — discovering new things about the world. It’s as though you’re learning a new story and then learning how to tell it. I knew this was the way I would share my passion.”
It was because of this teacher, Dr. Foba J. Tendo, that she decided to major in chemistry and minor in materials science and technology. Dr. Tendo, she said, “totally inspired me. After the first class I knew this was what I wanted to do. She had a mastery of her subject that was almost intimidating — she made it look so easy. She guided me to begin some research on corrosion, which is a very important issue throughout the oil fields around the world. Having a real-world problem, I was picking up a good background for a field that is not only interesting but very important for industry worldwide.”
After graduation, she applied online for a drilling job in the oil fields. “About 40 of us had been called for an interview that day,” she recalled, “and nine were selected for the final round. Only two out of the nine were ladies. At the end, only three people were recruited, two of whom were ladies, and I was fortunate to be one of them.”
The work was very challenging. She gained experience on three kinds of offshore drilling vessels: jack-ups, which work in shallow waters (up to 400 feet deep) by extending metal legs down to the sea floor and elevating the rig upward; semi-submersibles, which are extra-stable rigs whose partially inflated pontoons allow the vessel to function in rough water up to 10,000 feet deep; and deep-water drilling ships, which are seagoing vessels with drilling equipment amidships on the deck and dynamic positioning systems that can hold the vessel steady in water up to 12,000 feet deep.
“The work expectations were the same for men and women,” she said. “I liked that. It didn’t matter if you were a woman; it was challenging for everyone. Sometimes, I met men who looked at me funny, like, ‘Really?’ But of course, that didn’t last. I worked at sea in those vessels for three years.”
On each kind of vessel, her work began with running and maintaining sensor cables that are used to monitor and log all conditions and actions in the borehole, or well. While the vessel is at sea, data is acquired from the drilling rig sensors for a range of purposes: decision-support to monitor and manage the smooth operation of drilling; to make detailed records (the well log) of the geologic formations penetrated by a borehole; to generate operations statistics and performance benchmarks to improve the effectiveness of the drilling; and to provide well planners with an accurate record of performance data so they can do statistical risk analyses for future operations. Data is also used to calculate how freely oil and other fluids can flow through the rock formation and to estimate the volume of hydrocarbons present in the reservoir.
Each oil vessel operated day and night, 24/7, remaining in the field for a month at a time. Esther’s direct employer was the drilling giant Schlumberger, and her title was Field Specialist for Drilling and Measurements. She worked mostly in the Republic of Congo, for the Italian firm ENI and the Chinese oil company CNOOC; in Gabon, for the French firm Total; and in Cameroon for the U.S. firm Noble Energy and the British company Glencore Cameroon Limited.
Her career was interrupted by the oil crisis of 2014, when prices fell abruptly and companies were forced to pare their operations. But Esther saw a bright side. “I thought it would be the ideal opportunity to get back to my postgraduate education.” Her undergraduate supervisor told her about materials science and engineering postgraduate programs at the University of Ghana and at the University of Cape Town. “Ghana answered first, and I seized the opportunity without wasting any more time.”
By the time of the 2017 AMSEN meeting, with the help of her supervisor Dr. Dodoo-Arhin, she was taking advantage of another research need — the use of transition metal oxides, such as copper and zinc oxides, to degrade contaminant dyes disposed of along with the effluent from textile industries. She also became interested in renewable energy technology and sustainable development. She uses every opportunity to encourage other young women to venture into the complex world of STEM.
In addition to her interest in materials and nanotechnology, Esther has a very different ambition that is equally important to her — and resembles the decision of both of her brothers to enter the ministry. She and her fiancé plan to undertake a long-term project that will focus on raising children, especially those who have no parents or have otherwise been abandoned. “He’s been of tremendous support since my dad passed on,” she said. “He took up the baton. Since he’s a chemical engineering graduate himself, he easily understands my professional challenges and has readily supported me through the years.” At present, their modest income from science will be supporting their desire to improve the lives of others.
“So many children need care, and by care I don’t mean just giving them food, shelter, and education; it’s about a lot more. It’s about showing love and raising them to stand as men and women of integrity tomorrow and teaching them to have the heart to do same for others. God willing, this will help the society thrive. We believe this is part of the purpose for which we exist.”
RISE Scholar’s Princeton Visit Yields Novel Research Experience for 20 Makerere Undergrads
by Joelia Nasaka
Makerere group with MRC Executive Director Dr. Dino Martins (center; holding dog) and Ms. Joelia Nasaka (center; in yellow)
August 16, 2016
When I met with Prof. Daniel Rubenstein in his office at Princeton University in November 2014 to talk about training opportunities at Mpala Research Centre (MRC) in Kenya for my wildlife ecology students at Makerere University, it seemed like a long shot. But when I visited Mpala the following July at Prof. Rubenstein’s invitation to see the center and identify potential research projects for my students to work on there, and to discuss the costs of their week-long stay and training, it started to sound possible.
I was advised by SIG to write a short proposal and budget for student training and then lobby for funding. In May 2016, Prof. Rubenstein wrote to me to inform me that our proposal would receive funding worth $5,000 from Princeton University and SIG, with Makerere University expected to contribute $500. That was the most amazing news. It meant several things to me: opportunities for my students to appreciate ecology and wildlife conservation, to improve research quality at Makerere, and to expand our networks at Mpala and Princeton; and capacity building for these future leaders and policymakers and for the two faculty members accompanying them.
On the evening of Saturday, July 23rd, twenty Makerere University undergraduates and two faculty members — Dr. Sente Celsus and me — left for MRC in northern Kenya, a drive of about 18 hours. The students kept their spirits high and unwavering. We reached MRC by the evening of Sunday the 24th and the students were as excited as I was to be at Mpala. Members of the Mpala administration, led by Mr. Cosmas Nzomo, had been waiting for us; they helped us settle in and gave us a very hearty and tasty dinner, which was more than welcomed after 18 hours on the road. Ms. Padukone Anchal, a Princeton in Africa fellow, was also very helpful, patiently planning our training.
The next morning the students attended talks by Prof. Rubenstein on the ecology of the wildlife species in Mpala and on grazing succession and facilitation and territoriality in different species. The students paid the utmost attention. They knew that now that they were finally at Mpala, they had to use every opportunity to the best of their abilities, and they asked as many questions as they could and participated fully throughout the different talks.
Makerere students and faculty listening to Prof. Dan Rubenstein (center; in orange)
Mrs. Nancy Rubenstein gave an introductory talk about the invasive species Opuntia stricta and how it’s being biologically controlled. Later, Dr. Ray Schmidt introduced the students to Ewaso Nyiro River’s aquatic community ecology, and Kimani Ndu’ngu gave a general plant ecology talk. This brought the students up to speed, and they were now in a position to design, plan and start on their research projects.
Students working to determine whether the biological control (cochineal bugs) is effective on the invasive species Opuntia stricta (cactus)
Students were randomly allocated to four working groups that produced amazing results. These results were presented on the last day of our stay at Mpala. The students were excited about their findings, and the fact that these came from hard work gave them a sense of ownership. The four research groups were working on dik-dik territoriality, vegetation diversity (related to dik-dik territoriality), invasive species (Opuntia and its control) and the aquatic insects in Ewaso Nyiro River. The students’ experiences — data collection under the hot sun, dik-dik observations, making transects for the vegetation surveys — will improve the quality of their research at Makerere University.
Students making transects and laying quadrants in the dik-dik territories
The students skipped meals in order to be able to collect data during those times — a major sacrifice, because MRC meals are delicious.
It was not all work and no play; the students also visited the mobile clinic, went for several game drives, went climbing, and visited pastoral communities where they participated in conservation education.
Students enjoying Mpala scenery from atop the Clifford rocks
Students participating in a conservation card game at the campsite in the evening
The Makerere University students made presentations about parasites to Musul Primary School pupils and Kimanju Secondary School students. The secondary school students welcomed us with overwhelming joy. They interacted with the university students, learning about their inspiration for their studies, what university life is like and what it takes to get to university. It was another great experience for the Makerere students.
Makerere students presenting at Kimanju Secondary School
At the end of each working day, the students and faculty gathered at the fire pit for feedback sessions. Everyone shared about the day’s activities and discussed how to improve their work. They also made comparisons between Uganda and Kenya. For some students, it was their first time they had traveled outside Uganda. How amazingly this trip touched twenty students’ lives, and how their attitude towards research changed! You only had to listen to these future leaders and policymakers narrate their experiences at Mpala to know how much it meant to them. We only hope and pray this training can receive more funding to make it an annual summer training opportunity for Makerere students, and ideally also for students from other East African universities.
We wish to thank Dan and Nancy Rubenstein for the wonderful talks and the training opportunities; Arlen and Sarah from SIG for making it all possible; Makerere University; Mpala Research Centre; Dino Martins; Anchal Padukone; Kimani Ndu’ngu; Ray Schmidt; Dedan Ngatia; Stephen Ekwanga; Tyler Kartzinel; Mike, Julius, Akoyit, and all of the security personnel; Lawrence and Eunice (kitchen); Cosmas Nzomo; Gikenyi and all of the other Mpala staff who made our training so productive and enjoyable; and the conservation clubs of Musul Primary School and Kimanjo Secondary School. We are forever indebted to you.
Intrigued by this initiative? Want to get involved by sponsoring future exchange programs to bring East African ecologists to Mpala? Please contact [email protected]!
Siajali Pamba has been a lecturer and researcher at the University of Dar es Salaam since he earned his PhD there in 2015 through WIO-RISE. His specialty, as he describes it, is “non-living things” — the transport and dispersal of suspended particulate matter in Tanzanian estuaries. His particular focus has been the Pangani River and its estuary.
In this ambitious project, he faced at the outset difficult unknowns: (1) where in the Pangani estuary did suspended particulate matter “prefer” to be deposited, and at what rate; (2) how much did tidal current, salinity, river discharge, and monsoon winds affect the deposition of matter; and (3) to what extent can satellites be used to map the dispersion of suspended matter. All of these questions are relevant in setting policy to control runoff from agriculture, industry, forestry, and other activities. These activities are important to Tanzania because they inevitably expose the soil to erosion, and this erosion in turn affects the downstream fisheries, navigation, and other uses of the large estuary.
Answering the first question, said Pamba, has been a matter of “pure field work.” Major tasks were to design sediment traps and deploy them around the Pangani estuary. Each month he faced the difficulty of locating these traps, retrieving their samples, and taking the samples to the lab to quantify the amounts of sediment. Each trap was set out in such a way that it could pick up suspended particulate matter in a pattern covering the southern, central, and northern areas of the estuary.
Answering the second question required both fieldwork and the development of a hydrodynamic model, using a brand of software called MIKE 21. To gather data for the model he deployed a current meter which allowed him to create an acoustic Doppler current profile. This made it possible to see how sediment velocity varied with depth, determine the direction of tidal currents and magnitude, and measure the salinity at different points of the estuary.
Answering the third question required the ability to analyze the dispersion of the suspended particulate matter as detected by satellites. This process required some skills he did not yet possess, so his principal adviser, Yohanna Shaghude, Director of UDSM's Institute of Marine Sciences, helped him arrange a research visit to one of the other WIO-RISE nodes, at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. At UCT, Pamba found expertise in using and interpreting high-resolution tools to extract much more information from the satellite imagery and to analyze the data. These tools allowed him to create images of the suspended sediment corresponding to the entire coastal zone of Tanzania. “This was really hard to do from here in Tanzania,” he said. “We could get the basic satellite data from the website, but we couldn’t see it in high resolution, and this is what we really needed.”
When he was able to assemble all his results from the field and satellite measurements, he found that most of the suspended particulate matter was being deposited on the north side of the estuary. Almost 392 kilograms of sediment per square meter per year was being deposited in the north, accumulating to a depth of about 13 meters at the locations of the traps. By contrast, very little was being deposited in the central or southern areas.
In addition, the modeling techniques allowed him to discover why more sediment was being deposited on the northern side. The satellite data made it clear that a strong current was flowing from south to north, carrying the sediment with it, and that the current was bending the river inflow northward as well.
Several other factors influenced this picture. During the dry season, he found, when river flow was reduced, more tidal salt water was pushing its way up-current, out of the estuary and into the river. At the same time, a greater percentage of the river silt was being deposited in the estuary because the water flow was not strong enough to transport it beyond the estuary into the ocean.
Pamba emphasizes that he received strong support from mentors at several nodes of the WIO-RISE network, in addition to its principal node at the Institute for Marine Sciences. “I worked closely with Antonio Hoguane,” he said, referring to the leader of the node at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique. “He assisted me a lot with input and helped me in how to set up experiments, present the results, interpret the meaning of results, and polish the presentation.” After successfully defending his thesis, Pamba has been promoted to lecturer at UDSM, and will soon move ahead to become a senior lecturer after disseminating the findings through publications.
An earlier post about Siajali Pamba can be found here.
SciDev.Net: African Scientists Win Grants to Create R&D Networks
by Ochieng' Ogodo
May 15, 2016
[NAIROBI] Five African scientists who completed their doctorates through the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) have each won US $25,000 to create, expand and improve university-based research groups.
The winners of the RISE Competitive Fund were announced during a meeting in Kenya last month (19-22 April) to celebrate the accomplishments of RISE and mark its transition to a new phase as a fully Africa-owned initiative.
The five scientists and their nationalities are Adenike Olaseinde, Nigeria; Benjamin Kumwenda, Malawi; Jane Tanner, South Africa; Majuto Manyilizu, Tanzania and Jane Namukobe, Uganda.
“This award is very important as it will enable us to do quality research and train students.” Adenike Olaseinde, Federal University of Technology, Akure
RISE is a project of the Science Initiative Group (SIG), an organisation dedicated to fostering science in developing countries, and based at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States.
Sarah Rich, the program manager at SIG, tells SciDev.Net that the grants are aimed at enabling RISE scholars in African universities to develop sustainable research groups with the capacity to pursue collaborative projects with unique and impactful contribution to advance scientific and engineering knowledge.
The winners plan to generate research projects, raise funds and strategise to move beyond the one-year phase supported by RISE fund. RISE is funded by the US-based Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Olaseinde, a faculty member at the Federal University of Technology, Akure in Nigeria, says she has established a materials and electrical research engineering group in Africa. Members of her group are from Botswana, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
“We will study metals and non-metals like alloy to develop data and materials for applications in various settings in Africa,” she tells SciDev.Net. “This award is very important as it will enable us to do quality research and train students. RISE has opened new hopes for me and I can’t imagine managing my PhD if it were not for it.”
Olaseinde explains that her research group will develop materials from Africa for Africa such as those for use in construction and energy sectors, research that makes impacts on people’s lives.
“Science is very key in African development and Africa-oriented science … needs to be done for better economies and lifestyles,” she says.
According to Kumwenda, a lecturer at the University of Malawi College of Medicine, he will use the grant to develop bioinformatics groups in Malawi for application of computational technology to solve biological or medical problems.
They will also train graduate students in bioinformatics using the fund to support other projects including in multi-drug resistance in humans.
Manyilizu, a lecturer at Tanzania-based University of Dodoma, College of Informatics and Virtual Education, will develop a computation and modelling research group that will be useful in data simulation studies.
For Namukobe, a lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda, the fund will assist in setting up research group and capacity building in natural products. They will look at traditional medicines for infectious diseases such as malaria.
“We want to validate the use of traditional plants by looking at their efficacy in Uganda, isolate their active compounds that can lead to development of new drugs,” she tells SciDev.Net. “In Uganda there are many herbal formulations that are not scientifically tested and can’t be registered by the National Drug Authority due to lack of scientific validation.”
Tanner, a researcher at Rhodes University, South Africa, says she aims at starting a new group for ground and surface water research in Africa.
“I want to change the landscape from that of separation and working in silos to togetherness to scale up projects focused on specific key sciences and interactions between the two,” Tanner adds.
This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
This article was originally published on SciDev.Net. Read the original article.
Agricultural Biotechnology: An Opportunity for Africa? (SABINA)
by Aneth David
April 19, 2016
Biotechnology encompasses technologies and techniques that utilise living organisms and systems to make products and/or processes of specific use and benefit to human beings. Nowadays biotechnology has become an indispensable tool in social and economic development, and is at the heart of many production systems from agriculture to the manufacturing industry and environment where the use of efficient clean technologies is emphasized. This area of science also facilitates sustainable development in Africa.
Perhaps one aspect of biotechnology that Africa could benefit from the most is agricultural biotechnology. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the agriculture sector employs 65% of the population and contributes 32% of GDP. However, productivity is low because of pests and diseases, low soil productivity and unpredictable weather patterns and effects of global warming. Agricultural biotechnology could help improve productivity by providing seed varieties that require a shorter time to grow and are resistant to diseases and/or environmental stresses. This way, farmers could obtain greater yield per unit area at a cheaper cost, which can help fuel both economic growth and social development.
But the continent also faces the danger of simply “adopting” technologies created for advanced countries, which may not work in an African environment and may end up being rejected by end users. A recent report from Chatham House, On Trial: Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa argued that funding and low research capacity in Africa are among the main barriers in developing strong biotechnologies.
Although progress is being made in the development and uptake of biotechnologies, we must redouble our efforts. Platforms such as OFAB and AATF that facilitate discussion among different stakeholders are crucial. When concerned stakeholders such as policy makers, civil society and the media come together and share knowledge on biotechnology, they can help facilitate evidence-based decision-making. What’s more, private sector companies can play an important role in the development of biotechnologies. African governments need to create strong investment climates to enable their involvement.
Africa may have missed out on the Green Revolution that transformed Asia and Latin America, but agricultural biotechnology represents an opportunity to increase agricultural production and improve livelihoods on the continent.
This post was originally featured on the Planet Earth Institute's blog. The author is currently pursuing her master's in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology through SABINA at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).
Bame Keabetswe Explores the Okavango Delta: “I Feel So Grateful to Work Here” (SSAWRN)
by Alan Anderson
March 28, 2016
As someone who spent her formative years at the edge of one of the driest regions on earth — the Kalahari Desert — it seems only logical for Bame Sanah Keabetswe to have chosen a career that has to do with water. Born in Zimbabwe to a Motswana father and Zimbabwean mother, Bame grew up in the Motswana village of Mahalapye, a parched community on the main road between the capital of Gaborone and the second largest city, Francistown. Thanks to her curiosity, love of nature and hard work, she is eagerly studying the wetlands, minerals, and soil of one of the wettest places in southern Africa, the Okavango Delta of northern Botswana. Now a SSAWRN MPhil student at the University of Botswana’s Okavango Research Institute (ORI), Bame aspires to a research career as a full faculty member at UB or some other university in the region.
Across the flat expanse of the Okavango, the delta is flooded for large portions of each year by the enormous rivers of rainy Angola, just across the border to the north. This flooding supports myriad populations of riverine plants and animals, from the tiniest plankton to the large, wild African mammals that draw thousands of tourists each year. Bame’s interest is in the chemistry of heavy metals in the water, soil, and vegetation of this complex ecosystem.
Bame laid the foundations for her studies in Mahalapye, completing primary school and entering Madiba Senior School in 2005. From there she was accepted by the University of Botswana in Gaborone, where she majored in chemistry. After earning a BSc in 2011, she took up a position as a research assistant at the Okavango Research Institute (ORI) in the town of Maun, about a thousand kilometers away from her home. She was eager to try something new.
After two years of working at ORI, assisting with the RISE node there and becoming steadily more familiar with the research projects underway, there was an opening for a RISE-sponsored MPhil student, and ORI’s Director Prof. Wellington Masamba urged her to apply. In 2013, Bame was accepted into SSAWRN and she began her MPhil research.
Bame in the Laboratory at ORI
Her enthusiasm for the Okavango — and her confidence — came from a fortunate upbringing and supportive parents. “My dad especially always believed in me. If I had told him I wanted to be president of the country, he would believe that I could. And I did too!”
“I always wanted to do things for myself. Growing up, I loved this cartoon called Dexter’s Laboratory. It’s about a kid who spends all his time in a lab he built in his parents’ house. They didn’t know what he was doing; he just built things and solved problems all by himself. I liked the thrill of that. I always wanted to work in science, and especially to work in nature. Out here it’s like Jurassic Park, and I just love it.”
Like the scientists in that movie, she works amid a vast tableau of African wildlife that includes the beautiful, the dangerous, and the bizarre: bounding impalas; lumbering elephants; hippos; lions; and countless burrowing colonies of naked mole rats.
She did admit that the delta island where she does her research is not without some of its own Jurassic Park-like dangers. “One day the lab technicians were working near here, out on the island with the pickup truck, when suddenly a water buffalo came after them. They dropped all their tools and ran. Another day I was pumping out ground water and a really big elephant was watching me from about 30 meters away. He wasn’t showing any signs of charging, but I lost my nerve and dropped my tools and ran anyway.”
ORI scientists examine elephant bones found on Nxaraga Island. (L to R: Bame; Mangaliso Gondwe; Alan Anderson; Kaelo Makati)
She feels it is a privilege to spend her research days — and some of her nights — in a remote and primitive camp about two hours by fast boat from a dock near Maun. “You know how sometimes you get so used to your surroundings or situation that you don’t notice it any longer? I never really get ‘used to’ working in the Okavango. I feel so grateful that I work here. It is an absolutely spectacular and fascinating place to be conducting my research. As a child, I always imagined myself working as a scientist in the Amazon. But hey, the Okavango isn’t much different!”
ORI Scientists' Camp on Nxaraga Island
As a chemist, Bame was well prepared to study many complex relationships between animals, plants, and their environment. The focus of her master’s research has been analyzing the water, soil, and plants for heavy metals around Nxaraga Island, her research site. This remote point of dry land provides sufficient shelter and battery-powered instruments to allow her to work for several days at a time before returning to analyze her samples in the laboratory.
The Nxaraga Island camp attendant keeps watch over the grounds from this tree. He even sleeps up there!
A major focus of the lab is water quality, and another project for Bame and others is to determine whether the chlorination of drinking water in communities around the delta is producing carcinogenic chemicals. “At the camp, we can drink the water, where it is very safe. The delta acts as a filter. It’s cleaner there than it is downstream, and that is an issue.”
Various kinds of carbonates and toxins, such as cadmium and lead, concentrate for unknown reasons near the edges of the delta’s islands, such as Nxaraga. Bame acknowledges that she and her colleagues have only just begun to investigate the countless chemical challenges of the Okavango Delta, and she relishes the opportunity to make her own contributions.
Bame with SIG Program Associate Sarah Rich on Nxaraga Island
Bame hopes to continue on to a PhD in chemistry after finishing her MPhil. When she’s not in the lab, she is actively involved in Femina Woman Association, a local NGO that fosters women’s empowerment through the mentoring of young girls.
In a major recognition of her work thus far, Bame was named the 2016 Next Einstein Forum (NEF) Ambassador for Botswana. She represented her country at the inaugural Next Einstein Forum Global Gathering, which was held in Dakar, Senegal on March 8–10. Bame plans to use her platform as NEF Ambassador to encourage other Motswana women to pursue careers in STEM and to visit local schools with the goal of getting schoolchildren excited about STEM subjects. “Young scientists in Africa [must be] innovative, and courageous enough to rise up and drive change in their own communities.” Bame is certainly playing a key role in driving that change, and we are eager to see what the future holds for this passionate, young activist-scientist.
Last week, we were fortunate to speak to Mathews Tsirizeni, a PhD student at the University of Botswana, who is sponsored by our fantastic partner, RISE. Mathews explains how his research will help enhance technology transfer on the continent, and calls for more institutions specialising in science and technology in Africa.
You are doing a PhD in Natural Resource Management – Hydrology at the University of Botswana. What does your research focus on?
My research focuses on surface streamflow, sediment and nutrient transport analysis using a mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system. This specifically involves analysing surface streamflow, sediment and nutrient transport from high-resolution close range imagery taken by UAV, producing Digital Terrain Model (Orthoimage) and Digital Elevation Model for further analysis, and repeated analysis of surface streamflow using flow meters from survey points. In addition, I have analysed water quality using selected parameters in a laboratory, and the results from this work will help me interpret the data contained in the hi-res imagery. Through this research, I hope to gain the information needed to create UAV mission operation guidelines to help monitor floods in the Okavango wetland system and other African rivers and wetlands.
As you may know, the Okavango Wetlands in Botswana is one of the most dynamic ecosystems in the world, with varied hydrological processes and continual morphological changes including sediment transport (the movement of sediment due to gravity and the movement of fluid in which the sediment is contained). However, parts of the Okavango system are extremely remote, which makes data acquisition challenging. I believe that UAV systems are a cost-effective way to acquire high-quality data that can help us better understand wetland floods, landcover, peat fires and land forms.
How will your research help drive scientific development in Africa?
Africa must embrace science and technology if it is to ensure that sustainable development and, specifically, food security is a reality for all. My research will create new opportunities for food production through the use of precision agriculture, enhance flood control, and help provide the data needed to enhance our continent’s adaptive capacity to climate change. Furthermore, my research will enhance our understanding of using UAV systems in scientific research, which will boost technology transfer on the continent.
You also presented at the 2nd African Ecosystem Based Adaptation for Food Security Conference last year. What can we do to enhance food security on the continent?
In my opinion, Africa needs to adopt an Ecosystem-based Adaptation approach, which uses biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of a broader strategy to help people and communities adapt to the threats posed by climate change. My presentation focused on water science, which is crucial in EbA, as it helps us address challenges including water quality, quantity, and its role in regulating plant growth and nutrient cycling. This information will really help us build adaptive capacity in Africa.
As you may know, the Planet Earth Institute is working for the scientific independence of Africa. What does scientific independence for Africa mean for you?
For me, scientific independence means that science is a key part of public sector and academic institution budgets. Ultimately, I want to see a continent where African governments are driving scientific research, and scientists and researchers are no longer dependent on donors or project funders.
What is your hope for science in Africa in 2016?
In 2016, I hope to see more educational institutions that specialise in science and technology. I am certain that this can be achieved. As you may know, countries such as Uganda and Malawi are leading the way with their dedicated science and tech universities. I have also seen many vibrant discussions about STI on social media, led by groups such as SABINA, RISE and others, which makes me confident about the future of science. What’s more, the newly ratified Paris Agreement (from the recent COP 21 negotiations) also supports science, research and technological development and transfer, particularly on the continent. I feel sure that 2016 will be a great year for the sciences in Africa.
The Long Road from Village Life to a PhD (WIO-RISE)
by Alan Anderson
January 25, 2016
Edward Moto (his last name means “fire” in Swahili) was born in a village in the Mwanza region of northern Tanzania, which borders the vast Lake Victoria. His parents were peasant farmers, raising cattle and tending rice, cassava, and maize. Like so many other young boys in rural Tanzania, Edward and his two brothers were expected to contribute to the hard labor of farming. There was little talk around the family table of his going to school, let alone of pursuing an advanced academic track that would lead to a doctoral degree.
A welcome turnaround in his early career, however, came in the form of an uncle who spoke persuasively to Edward’s parents about the advantages of modern schooling. He could and did point to himself as an example of such a course, since his schooling had qualified him for a rewarding job in charge of a milk processing company owned by the government. “I could see he really enjoyed what he did,” said Edward, recalling a visit to the company. “He studied procurement at the university, and that’s what he did.” (At the time, the government owned almost all industries, because the president of Tanzania was then Julius Nyerere, who believed firmly in public ownership.)
The uncle was the youngest of five children. He had lived near a Catholic mission, which had its own school. Unlike his four siblings, who attended classes without much enthusiasm, he enjoyed his studies. After holidays, he was the only one of the Motos who was eager to return to his classes.
Mwanza, Tanzania
In 1986 Edward was sent to primary school some 50 miles from home, and in 1990 he moved to the city of Mwanza for last two years of primary school. In 1993 he entered Mwanza Secondary School for ordinary secondary study, and did well enough to get into Pugu High School in Dar es Salaam in 1997 for advanced secondary study — a government school where Nyerere himself had once taught.
After Pugu High School, he moved back to his parents' home in Mwanza region and waited for the results of his advanced secondary school coursework. During that period he assisted his parents with farming. When the results came out, he learned that he had performed well and had qualified for undergraduate studies. Although he was convinced that furthering his education was the right choice, Edward was still not sure where it would lead him. When he finished high school, however, he had had to fill out a form specifying what he would like to do next. He saw two possibilities that appealed to him: Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro or Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam. “I decided to go for agriculture,” he said. “Why? Because SUA offered a [bachelor’s] scholarship.”
There was also another reason: He had a long-time friend who was working in agriculture and liked it. He advised Edward that “once you study agriculture, you can have your own business, such as selling pesticides. You can have a good career.”
Edward said that some kind of strategy was necessary in order to have a good career in agriculture. “You have to look at the business side as well,” he said. “You know that 80 percent of Tanzanians are farmers, but they are [operating on a] very small [scale]. They barely have enough food for themselves, and a little left over to sell. It takes capital to buy land and be well-off. Well-off means that you might have 100 hectares of land, say, and a tractor. That was my dream — to have a big farm. But I didn’t have any capital, so I needed a way to earn some.” A weakness in the national agricultural system is the lack of a loan structure; only now is a state farmers’ bank planned, for 2016.
An enumerator uses a poster to obtain informed consent for research in Morogoro, Tanzania
In 2001 he was accepted to SUA and studied there as an undergraduate through 2004. By then his friend had a job with government, as a livestock officer in the district of Misungwi in Mwanza region, inspecting and treating animals.
Once Edward was well into his studies at SUA, however, he started becoming more interested in pursuing research, and by his last year he felt the pull toward a career as a faculty member. He didn’t know how to go about it, so he decided to follow his friend’s advice and work with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development. In 2005 he returned to the town of Mpwapwa to work as an assistant researcher in a government-owned livestock research center.
He liked the work, but was discouraged by the center’s perennial shortage of research funds. He found that the only way to do some interesting work was to do what he could on his own time, at his own expense.
Then in 2006 a friend told him about a scholarship for MSc students in Belgium, for which he applied and was accepted. This seemed to lead in the right direction, so he moved to Belgium for two years to pursue his master's degree through the Interuniversity Programme on Molecular Biology (IPMB), jointly organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Universiteit Antwerpen. His advisor was a postgraduate researcher studying infections contracted by female pigs that were nursing their young. The piglets were becoming infected with E. coli, which is usually kept in-check by mucins, gel-like substances the mother pigs secrete to protect the piglets from infection. Edward tried varying the diets of the pigs, suspecting that different foods might affect the genes controlling mucin production, but none of the foods he tested made any difference on the milk genes.
University of Dodoma
Despite his lack of success on that project, he returned to his job in Mpwapwa in October 2009, hoping for a position in academia. He applied for and was hired as an assistant lecturer at the University of Dodoma, which he at first found overwhelming. In his developmental biology class, he was asked to teach no fewer than 190 students. “They were noisy and difficult,” he said. “No one was learning anything. So I divided them into two groups, and this made a difference.” He also had an evolution class with 70 students — again, a high number — and a more manageable animal behavior class with 22. But none of his classes was in his own field of microbiology, which he had studied as both an undergraduate and a master’s student.
When he saw a notice in 2011 about an opening in WIO-RISE for a PhD candidate at the University of Dar es Salaam's Institute of Marine Sciences in Zanzibar, he was ready to advance his own studies, and to take a break from crowded classrooms. Reading further, he learned that they preferred someone with an interest in marine science.
“Of course I didn’t have any background in marine science. They wanted a concept note, so I read about marine biology to look for something interesting. I came up with phytoplankton, which had things in common with microbiology and agriculture.” He decided on a title for his concept note: “Seasonal Diversity and Biomass Production in Zanzibar Coastal Waters.” The objective is to quantify the populations of phytoplankton in various locations throughout the year, a fundamental exercise in studying the marine environment.
Another advantage of this topic was that other researchers had asked this same question over a period of decades, beginning in 1977 and then again in 1995 and 1996. This gave him comparison points that he could then align with other parameters, such as water temperature, water chemistry, or predator species. He learned that 277 species of phytoplankton were found in 1977, 168 in 1995, and 171 in 1996. He identified 260 species.
“I asked myself, why are the numbers so different? Was it the technique? Lack of identification keys? Different sampling sites? pH, salinity, temperature, nutrients? We do know that the amount of biomass is much higher here along the beach of Stone Town than near an island 8 km away from the harbor, and that’s because of the high level of nutrients from sewage and other organic waste. But we still have much to learn about phytoplankton.”
Edward finds his marine work more interesting than agriculture, and is now writing up his thesis. He has submitted a draft to his advisors, Dr. Margareth Kyewalyanga of IMS-UDSM in Zanzibar and Dr. Thomas Lyimo of UDSM. In the summer of 2015, Edward returned to Dodoma to take up his work as an assistant lecturer. He anticipates finishing his thesis in October, and receiving his PhD in 2016. Edward has proposed a program in marine biology to the University of Dodoma, despite its considerable distance from salt water. And he promises to keep us informed.
Can Bioslurry Replace Some Synthetic Pesticides? (AFNNET)
by Alan Anderson
December 14, 2015
Cliffson Zakaria Maro is a RISE-AFNNET MSc student at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania. His year of coursework, completed in November 2015, included an astounding range of topics: research methodology, statistics and data management, pharmacognosy (the study of medicinal drugs derived from plants or other natural sources), public health, microbiology, biopesticides, entrepreneurship, project management, analytical chemistry, and the biological interaction of drugs in the body.
The subjects that most strongly caught his interest, he said, were pharmacognosy, followed by entrepreneurship and project management. Entrepreneurship interests him partly because it emphasizes small and medium-sized enterprises, especially those in which farmers and others make or sell traditional medicines, expanding their horizons beyond common low-margin crops such as sorghum and maize.
“When I came to SUA,” he said, “I wrote in my proposal that I wanted to find a natural product to study. I was prepared to start my studies on ants, because they are very destructive to farmers. But my professor found some difficulties I might have in my project. He advised me to look into another question, which he had discovered in southern Tanzania, in the Njombe region. There he had heard that farmers were applying a bioslurry to vegetables as fertilizer. This is an area with many insect pests, and the farmers told him that the inserts were no longer eating the vegetables that were fertilized by the bioslurry. Naturally he wanted to know why, and I agreed that it sounded very interesting as a project.”
The term “slurry” refers to a fluid mixture of small particles—usually containing water—that offers a convenient way of handling large amounts of solids, such as dirt, clay, pulverized coal, cement, or manure. In the region Cliffson chose to explore, bioslurry is the principal byproduct of biogas digesters, which are used to extract methane from cow manure. Many users simply discard the bioslurry after the methane is removed, which both pollutes the environment and wastes useful organic material. Cliffson planned to investigate whether or not bioslurry is a more effective fertilizer than raw manure, and also whether it has the ability to reduce crop damage caused by pests.
In preparing for his master’s fieldwork, Cliffson drew up a proposal with four objectives. He has already completed some sections of it, though important parts are still awaiting answers.
Cliffson intends to administer a questionnaire to farmers who are using bioslurry. He wants to ask them exactly which pests it has reduced, how the farmers make and use the slurry, how long they store it before use, and whether it actually kills pests or simply repels them. He also wants to understand the farmers’ attitudes about bioslurry and its value.
He also plans to hold a field trial to demonstrate what the farmers are doing. He has already tested spinach, a vegetable that is commonly grown in the region, as his experimental crop. He tested it both in the field and in a greenhouse. On one portion of the crop he applied no pesticide, and found that caterpillars ate about a third of the leaves. On a second portion, he applied only bioslurry, and on the third portion he applied the synthetic Farmguard pesticide. The best outcome was seen in the bioslurry portion, second best in the pesticide portion, and the worst in the portion without protection.
Using techniques of microbiology with the help of a lab technician, he has examined the bacterial content of the bioslurry. He has found references in the literature to the presence of Bacillus thuringiensis, a common bacterium used as an alternative to synthetic pesticides, but has not yet found it.
He has explored the biochemistry of the bioslurry using thin-layer chromatography to identify the constituents. Using samples from the biogas plants of five farmers, he found, first, 1,2-dicholoromethane; then hexane; then methanol; then a combination of methane and hexane. “I came to realize,” he said, “that the chromatographic profile was the same in all five. Now I want to compare this profile with profiles published in the literature.”
With these results, Cliffson is partway through his four goals, with some important answers still to come: how much the farmers really know about bioslurry, its specific effect on pests, and its microbial contents. Depending on the answers to these and related questions, he may have an opportunity to exploit the power of both the entrepreneurship and pharmacognosy he enjoyed most during his coursework.
“These are important questions to answer,” he said, “because there is a big market for organic products here in Tanzania. The market is growing fast. People don’t want to use synthetics anymore because they are aware of the harm chemicals can do. People have been spraying so much to get rid of pests, and they have found that the vegetables are full of pesticides. Whether the slurry is killing the pests, or whether it is more of a repellant, it seems to be working, and this can be part of a new solution.”
Making the Case for Computation and Modeling (WIO-RISE)
by Alan Anderson
September 15, 2015
Dr. Majuto Clement Manyilizu is a lecturer in informatics at the College of Informatics and Virtual Education on the half-finished but sparkling new campus of the University of Dodoma in Tanzania. It is difficult to reconcile this accomplished, reserved, and respected man, sitting in his tidy office, with the child born not so long ago in a remote village just south of Lake Victoria, in the Shinyanga region. To begin his education when he reached age seven, he had to apply to a primary school in a nearby district, where he was turned down.
“They examined me,” he recalled. “I was supposed to be able to touch my left ear with my right hand, but I couldn’t do it. So I wasn’t allowed to go to primary school for two more years. My father, who worked as a clerk in the primary court of our ward, decided he would teach me at home by himself, and he did that for two years.”
By the time Majuto was nine, not only could he touch his ear, but he could also handle any course material his teachers threw at him. He breezed through primary school, and was then admitted to St. John Paul II Secondary School, which was run by Kahama Parish. After that he joined a more challenging technical high school run by the government: Moshi Technical High School in Moshi, the capital of Kilimanjaro region. This was a big change for a village boy, taking him some 300 miles eastward from his home. He wore a uniform and was told that he had to pass every course or face expulsion. “But I was a good student,” he said with a smile. “I always enjoyed my studies, and I was always at the top of my class. I still enjoy doing research and working hard on a problem.”
Indeed, throughout high school he thrived in the challenging environment of the school, excelling in mathematics and the sciences. After completing his Advanced level exams, he stayed home for a year to teach in secondary schools in his hometown, after which he applied to the largest institution of higher education in the country, the University of Dar es Salaam. “I knew I would study science,” he said, “and I especially liked math. It was not as tough as chemistry, which has a lot of memorizing, and didn’t need as much effort as biology. I passed all of the sciences, but I liked math the best because I like solving problems. In mathematics, once you get the principles, it’s easy to solve the problems.”
Majuto’s breadth of interests and love of problem solving served him well at UDSM. There he completed a major in computer science without difficulty, and after that, he heard about an excellent program in physical oceanography at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where was accepted to work at the master’s level. He found this new field fascinating, delighting in the complex oceanographic problems presented by his mentor, Professor Chris Reason.
University of Cape Town
After finishing his MSc work, he had neither an academic post nor a bursary for further studies. But Prof. Reason happened to be a leader in the Western Indian Ocean Regional Initiative (WIO-RISE), and he advised Majuto to apply to do his PhD through the network.
He was accepted, and promptly chose a complex—and mathematics-based—research project involving the potential effects of climate change on the circulation and properties of the Western Indian Ocean. He focused on the near-shore shelf off his native Tanzania, and began to study the scientific literature concerning all the major parameters of the ocean, including temperature, current, salinity, and sea surface height. The Tanzanian shelf region has proven highly sensitive to climate variability, which has caused droughts or floods at least once a year for the past three decades, and understanding the responses to future climate change is a high priority for Tanzania and other countries bordering the ocean.
Near the coast, he found only small variations of temperature, but offshore the variability was much stronger. The question he asked during his research was why there should be such large differences.
To predict the effects of climate change on ocean parameters, he had to learn numerical modeling, which would allow him to simulate ocean behavior mathematically. Some of the complex systems that had to be incorporated in the model were the Northeast Madagascar Current (NEMC), the upwelling water from the Seychelles-Chagos thermocline ridge (SCTR), the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole events, solar radiation, local wind stress, and the Coriolis effect. Since he enjoys mathematics, a task that would be onerous for many was a rewarding challenge for him.
The model he used helped provide some answers. The offshore region of high variability, he said, was influenced by internal dynamics produced by El Niño. Near shore, however, the influence of El Niño was much weaker, for several reasons. First, the currents were stronger, mixing the water of the region and preventing sharp changes of temperature. Also, the winds were stronger, which mixed the waters of different regions and temperatures.
(a, b): Standard deviation of the monthly sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies, with Boxes A1 and A2 representing coastal waters in the Tanzanian shelf region (40–45° E, 8–11° S) and B1 and B2 representing the open ocean (48–54° E, 1° N–2° S). (c, d): Square of the correlation coefficient between the monthly SST anomalies in the entire domain and those averaged over the coastal ocean, as extracted from Boxes A1 and A2. From one of Majuto's publications, linked to the image.
“That’s what models allow scientists to do,” he said. “We can change this parameter, and then that parameter, and see what happens when we feed the new model into the computer. The modeling is very complicated, but that’s the way nature is. You have to be able to see all the forces operating at once.”
His PhD publication, “Simulation of Variability in the Western Tropical Indian Ocean,” co-authored by Reason and two other colleagues, addressed all of these issues. “We tried to see the contribution of external and internal forces,” he said. “I removed the wind to see what would happen. This is what you can do by modeling.”
While he was doing his PhD research in Cape Town in 2010, he was also keeping an eye out for post-PhD opportunities. He heard of an opening at the brand new University of Dodoma, established in Tanzania’s political capital some 250 miles west of Dar es Salaam. He applied, and flew north for an interview. He secured the faculty post in 2010, but was allowed to complete his PhD studies before reporting for faculty duties.
“It would have been challenging to continue my research in Dodoma,” he said. “I wanted to do some virtual research, some modeling, and that needs powerful computers and hardware that did not yet exist there.”
University of Dodoma, Tanzania
The College of Informatics and Virtual Education did exist, however, and he became a lecturer there as soon as he graduated in 2014. He also became something of an academic pioneer, with few students or peers. In the past year, however, his college has begun to grow, and now has a dean who is a full professor, a principal, and two other PhDs besides himself. His primary job is to teach two courses: one in graphical information systems (GIS), the other in software analysis and error detection. Next year he’ll add a course in virtual education, or machine learning—the use of technologies to assist teaching and learning. He is also doing unpaid work in coordinating research and publications.
“We desperately need staff here,” he said, “but they are hard to find. We try to hire locally, but few Tanzanians have the training we need. It’s more expensive to hire international staff because they are considered ‘expert.’ The hardest staff to find are those with an MSc or PhD.”
He was drawn to informatics for the same reason he enjoys modeling—its applicability “to other parts of life. I always like to understand why we are working with some idea.” He finds that informatics has broad applications in a variety of disciplines. He believes so much in its importance, in fact, that he has established an all-volunteer group of junior faculty to help other faculty members understand the value of research in general and the use of vital new research tools—especially modeling, simulation, informatics, and virtual education.
The Computation and Modeling Research Group at the University of Dodoma
“I want to see how society can be connected,” he said. “When we established our group, I had been trying to do pure science, but a lot of pure science does not address the needs of society directly. There are a lot of gaps.”
He has named his small enterprise the Computation and Modeling Research Group, whose overall objective is to enhance all kinds of research activity at the university. The genesis of the group lay in Majuto’s discovery that many faculty members had little understanding of either the importance or the methods of research. Many are hampered, for example, by poor backgrounds in statistics, a cornerstone of the physical, life, and social sciences.
“We need to shift direction in academic science and engineering,” he said, “away from just theory and lecturing.” Knowledge of modeling and computation, he believes, can help faculty do better research and students to understand the purpose of what they are studying.
“The dominant need for staff here,” he said, “is a better appreciation of techniques that help forecast, or ‘hindcast,’ an event; this is what modeling is useful for. Other activities that can benefit from modeling include science that uses huge amounts of data, such as gene and protein studies.”
He began to plan the group’s strategy by surveying the needs and abilities of faculty members. He was surprised to find that even faculty members in engineering and science lacked common research knowledge. Accordingly, he raised his objective even higher, and became determined to offer access to research skills for the entire university. At the same time, he has set out to motivate faculty, to build awareness of computation and modeling, and to prepare secondary school students for research activities.
“From our preliminary survey results,” he said, “the majority of staff are not aware of research tools. Our task is to motivate them and show them the power of these tools. We are also trying to solve a practical problem—figuring out why performance in science is so poor. Practical science is not taught well—most classes don’t even have labs for practice. My idea is to offer more virtual methods, so students can at least visualize what happens in real labs. We can give them questions to answer: What research would they do if they could? I am convinced that virtual techniques can excite them about the real thing.”
His group has conducted a survey of secondary schools—both public and private—which has helped them better understand the features of the local academic population. They have begun to correlate the age of secondary school teachers with the use of ICT. For example, recent graduates (age 25-35) have more knowledge of ICT, while older graduates have less. “We are also looking at other parameters for teachers: educational level, type of schools attended, ICT training. We’d like to dedicate one of the computer labs to packages of modeling so people can use them. Someone from our group will volunteer to lead it. We need financial support to provide the tools for this.”
He said that in the School of Virtual Education, the second school in his college, both students and staff are somewhat aware of research methods. The first tool being taught is statistics, using a package for social sciences developed by Stanford and now owned by IBM. “But we are having to struggle to make staff and students see the need for this. In our college we are using Matlab and Stata software, trying to make sure people from all fields move from descriptive statistics to inferential statistics. We are approaching the time for intervention when we can help them do more.” He is also introducing the topic of probability, which holds interest for students going into business, and teaching the value of better writing skills.
The Computation and Modeling Research Group now meets every Saturday to strategize and plan for the future. “We have a small fund from SIG for this,” he said, “and we use it sparingly. We have shown that we can keep a team together that works day and night just for developing these skills. We will help staff development, but we need some more support. If we can find that, there will be a larger group, with more faces from more colleges in the university. Right now, six of us are from my college, and one is from the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. We think the majority of staff are not even aware of these tools. We need to be working with everyone.”
Across the Ocean to Meet a Neighbor: Princeton Visit Connects Scholars in Uganda and Kenya (AFNNET)
by Joelia Nasaka
Joelia is currently pursuing her PhD at Makerere University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biosecurity (COVAB) through RISE-AFNNET. She is also a lecturer at COVAB.
L to R: Mpala Research Centre Director Dr. Dino Martins, RISE-AFNNET PhD Student Joelia Nasaka, Princeton University Prof. Dan Rubenstein
August 13, 2015
Five hours away from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, I found myself at Mpala Research Centre, anxious about what the next three days would hold for me. The security guards welcomed me to the guest house, making me feel right at home. I was ready for my tired body to rest after a warm shower.
At 7:30 am, I was up for breakfast and at the dining area found many students from the USA and Kenya with their advisors, preparing for the day’s work ahead. They all smiled warmly and shook hands with me as we exchanged pleasantries. Some stole side glances at me, maybe wondering how I would manage to carry out research in my condition, but some friendly ones reached out to me and asked how long I was staying, whether my family would be joining me anytime soon… and I understood why they were concerned, as I have this huge belly in front of me (7 months along!) and the research center is very hot—no place for the weak, with lots of action-packed research being carried out. Both outside my house and in the dining area, I observed plenty of wildlife, ranging from birds, monkeys, and butterflies to dik-dik running around.
Prof. Rubenstein in the dining area, which doubles as a classroom space
At around 8:30 am, a gentle man with a warm smile approached me and called me by name, “Joelia, you are most welcome, sorry you got here late last night and we had already retired for the day,” and while I was not sure yet who the man was, I already felt very welcome in this place. It was actually Dr. Dino Martins, the research center’s new director. Later on Prof. Dan Rubenstein (Princeton University) arrived, and I was so happy to see him; at this point I felt like my students’ research dreams and mine could be realized. He introduced me to everyone, including his graduate students. We joined Dr. Martins in his office where we planned out my next few days’ activities.
Day 1: I set out for the field with Kaia Tombak, a graduate student working with Prof. Rubenstein on Grevy's zebras. She is doing nutritional studies on the zebras as well as identifying individual zebras by their stripe patterns to understand their social behavior. We also conducted vegetation (grass) surveys with the help and experience of Josephat, who has been working with Prof. Rubenstein for the last seven years and knows Mpala very well. On the way, I was treated to a tour of the research center’s ecosystem. Later I joined Tyler Kartzinel, a Princeton postdoc who is carrying out nutritional studies on the goats and sheep in neighboring communities to determine their foraging patterns and plant preferences.
Joelia in the field with Mpala researchers
Day 2: Two of Prof. Rubenstein’s students, Tyler and Ryan, took me along to their experimental plots. They are working on elephant selective nutrition of some epiphyte species in and outside the Uhuru experimental plots. It was amazing to see how they set up camera traps in addition to taking vegetation surveys. We visited the Uhuru experimental plots with four different treatments set aside for feeding trials of ungulates in Mpala.
Joelia with Mrs. Rubenstein (and her camera-shy granddaughter) in front of Mpala Academy
In the afternoon, I joined Mrs. Nancy Rubenstein to carry out conservation education at a nearby local school called Mpala Academy. Here my heart melted, the schoolkids were so cute and passionate about conservation programs as well as the activities that we gave them for the day. We had so much fun. I also went to the nursery class where kids were playing with the flash cards that had been donated to the class. They were really excited to see me, and I remember the headmaster telling them how I was from Makerere University, one of the best in Africa, from which their former President Mwai Kibaki had graduated. I expressed my gratitude to Nancy and the school administration for giving me the time to interact with their kids. I asked the kids to be good stewards of the environment as an example to their parents and the rest of the community. What a day! I rode back to the research center with the schoolkids on their school bus, and as we approached the center, they sang me farewell songs. How nice to be a part of these innocent souls’ lives for even half a day!
Snapshots from Mpala Academy
Day 3: After breakfast Ms. Chloe Cipolletta, East African Grant Program Director from National Geographic, gave a talk. What a way to crown this trip; she came to talk about funding as one of the biggest limiting factors for successful completion of research in Africa. We caught up after the talk to share contacts and GUESS WHAT? Yes, you guessed right, Chloe is coming to Uganda and to Makerere, specifically to my department and college (COVAB), to share the news with the researchers and the students about potential funding for research in the East African region. National Geographic now has a link to Makerere University, all thanks to this visit. The researchers at the Center were asked to share where they were from and a bit about their work. At this point I realized how much work is being done at Mpala and that it is the perfect place for my ecology students to pursue internships and research opportunities.
Joelia with Chloe Cipolletta
Later I went with Chloe and Dan to the student campsite to look at what facilities are available in case we bring a class from Makerere University to Mpala. The campsite is great, with a fire pit, view of the wildlife and River Awasanyiro, and tented facilities—not to mention the meals offered. In an earlier meeting, Dr. Martins mentioned that he was working on getting the East African student rate to be about 30 USD full board for the classes that stay at this campsite. This is part of an effort to attract more regional researchers to Mpala, and I feel that this will work in our favor.
Student tents at Mpala
I was invited to a special dinner at the Ranch House with the student advisors—all great scientists, from Princeton University (Dan and Nancy Rubenstein, Rob Pringle); Columbia University (Dustin Rubenstein); UC Davis (Prof. Truman P. Young); Mpala Research Centre (Dr. Dino J. Martins); and National Geographic (Chloe Cipolletta). What an evening! The Ranch House has a breathtaking view of the site. This crowned my visit for networking, relationship building, and “scouting” at Mpala.
My stay at Mpala would never have been possible if it were not for my meeting with Dan at Princeton University’s Indaba. SIG invited me to Princeton while I was a visiting researcher at Mississippi State University through CIMTRADZ-HED.
I wish to thank Prof. Dan Rubenstein for giving me that first PowerPoint presentation about Mpala in his office at Princeton University. It caught my attention, and since we teach almost the same subjects, it was inevitable that I wanted to see more of what he does while in neighboring Kenya. Thank you for inviting me to Mpala and for having me at the Ranch House.
I also wish to thank Dr. Dino Martins and all of the staff at Mpala for giving me the best care while I was at Mpala. I look forward to seeing you all again next year. I also wish to thank the graduate students for sharing their work with me; I wish you well in your projects and look forward to keeping in touch.
To SIG/RISE, particularly to Sarah and Arlen, I am forever grateful for your commitment to your scholars. This trip would never have taken place without your help. The invitation to Princeton University was from SIG and this trip was a spin-off from that visit. Thank you for funding me to travel to Mpala. Prof. Rubenstein has even offered to give guest lectures to my students when they come to Mpala and also hopes to come to Uganda sometime in the future. My students will hopefully go to Mpala next summer, and the network I’ve gained from connecting with Mpala will better my teaching and my research.
Dalu Mancama, head of the research group of CSIR Biomedical Technologies in Pretoria, South Africa, has recently become an advisor for RISE students in the SABINA network. With a background in biochemistry and molecular biology and genetics specialty, he brings long experience to this position. He trained students at King’s College London for five years and continued his advising role at CSIR where he arrived eight years ago.
His focus at CSIR has been developing natural products for medicinal use, with a special interest in malaria and other infectious diseases. As the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum develops resistance to antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine, new strategies as well as new treatments are urgently needed. Dr. Mancama and SABINA Academic Director Dr. John Becker are investigating multiple approaches in partnership with other scientists at both institutions. It is this research ferment and excitement that both leaders bring to SABINA advisees who are fortunate enough to work with them, getting a rich introduction to what happens in a high-level, multidisciplinary research lab.
One student who benefits from having dual mentors is Hatago Stuurmann of Namibia. In 2013, Hatago, from a small village in southern Namibia, completed her BSc (honors) in microbiology and chemistry in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Namibia (UNAM). Her bachelor’s research project was an investigation of the anticancer activity of the baobab tree, Adansonia digitata, and Scierocarya birrea, a common tree whose oil is said to have many nourishing, antimicrobial, and healing properties.
With that early research experience behind her, she had the good fortune to win a SABINA scholarship, and in 2014 she began her MSc work under the joint supervision of Davis Mumbengegwi and Martha Kandawa-Schultz, both RISE supervisors at UNAM, and Dr. Mancama of CSIR. Having multiple advisors at different institutions is already bringing strong benefits.
“When Hatago was planning her project,” said Dr. Mancama, “we were all able to give quite a bit of input. Under my colleagues Dr. Mumbengegwi and Dr. Kandawa-Schultz at UNAM, she began by exploring the indigenous knowledge system in Namibia and studying plant extracts used in health care, including plants used to treat malignancies.”
He then organized a brief plan of work to complement this field and collection experience. He set up a two-week laboratory intensive for her in the CSIR laboratories in Pretoria. There she could get a “racing start” in acquiring advanced skills unavailable elsewhere in the SABINA network. By placing her among experienced lab researchers, he could allow her to watch and learn a series of valuable techniques. Subsequent to drawing potentially useful extracts from target plants and profiling them in a high-performance liquid chromatographer at her home institution, she traveled to CSIR to gain experience in assessing their toxicity, culturing mammalian cell lines, assaying extracts against the cell lines, designing experiments around these assays, and using statistical techniques to evaluate the experiments. “Learning these skills lets her see how the compounds in these extracts work,” he said. “She will learn to actually see their activity.”
He said that he had also provided a similar two-week lab intensive for a SABINA student from Rwanda in September 2013, who was able to test 16 different plant extracts for possible bioactivity. He estimated that Hatago would test at least 10.
An advantage of the participation of CSIR researchers in the SABINA network is the breadth of CSIR’s research projects, which include not only infectious diseases but also nanotechnology, synthetic biology, information and communications technology, water resources, materials science, natural resources and environmental science, remote sensing, mining technology, and modeling. While students cannot possibly sample all of these activities, they gain awareness of the breadth of professional research and the diversity of its applications throughout society.
Of special relevance to natural products is CSIR’s vast plant collection, which contains freeze-dried extracts from about 24,000 terrestrial species, some 6,000 of them from South Africa. Much of the CSIR’s work involves testing these extracts against cancer, infectious diseases, opportunistic viruses, bacteria, and other agents and conditions.
Because RISE has experienced the value of personnel exchanges, Dr. Becker has worked hard for additional support to create more of them. His efforts paid off in the fall of 2014 when SABINA received a substantial grant from the South African Department of Science and Technology for exchanges and for instrumentation.
According to SABINA Project Manager Jessika Naidoo, “A portion of this funding will be given to South African nodes of the SABINA network for the purchase of small pieces of laboratory equipment. The remaining funds are to increase the participation of South African researchers in network activities by sending faculty from South African universities to SABINA nodes outside South Africa to present workshops and seminars and participate in the annual meetings. We’re very excited, because it gives us a way to expose students to expertise that might not be readily available at their home institutions. We look at it as a way to strengthen the whole SABINA program.”
Already SABINA is preparing to invite faculty members from several institutions to participate, including not only the University of Pretoria, CSIR, and Charles de Koning’s Chemistry Department at Wits, but also the University of Johannesburg, University of South Africa, University of Cape Town, University of the Western Cape, Tshwane University of Technology, and other key stakeholders in the natural products sector.
