Six early career scientists selected to attend Lindau meetings

Six early career African scientists nominated by the African Academy of Sciences have been selected to attend the prestigious Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting slated for June this year. The 68th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which is this year dedicated to Physiology and Medicine, will run from 24-29th June at Lake Constance in Germany.

The six will join 600 outstanding undergraduate students, doctoral candidates and postdocs under the age of 35 from across the globe to attend the meeting organised to promote networking between young scientists and Nobel Laureates. This year’s meeting will be attended by 43 Nobel Laureates – more than ever before at a Medicine meeting –and participants from 84 countries.

The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting for Physiology and Medicine is organised annually to provide a platform for early career scientists to interact with and be inspired by the best minds in the world. As an official partner of the Lindau Foundation, the AAS is invited to nominate young scientists every year.

The six are scientists drawn from Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda who were selected after a rigorous and multi-stage review process. They are:

• Oluwatomide Adeoye, Lecturer at the Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
• Cynthia Kankeu, a Cameroon-born PhD Researcher in cardiovascular sciences at the KU Leuven in Belgium
• Simon Kimuda, PhD Research Fellow at the MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS, Uganda
• David Niyukuri, a Burundi-born PhD student at the Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• Dominic Omosa Ochwang’i, Lecturer at the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology, University of Nairobi
• Balindiwe Sishi, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Physiological Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

 “Our nominations are part of efforts to prepare young African scientists and provide them with the support to develop their careers and enable them to provide answers to challenges facing the continent, said AAS Executive Director Nelson Torto.