Two young scientists working in South Africa were awarded the honour of attending the 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting.
Once a year, about 30 Nobel laureates (people who have been recognised for the contributions they have made) gather at Lake Constance, in Lindau, Bavaria, to meet the next generation of leading scientists – about 400 to 500 undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doctoral researchers.
This year’s meeting was dedicated to chemistry and the two African representatives were selected out of the Novartis and University of Basel Next Generation Scientist programme.
Phuti Chelopo, who recently completed her PhD working at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Tshwane, and Kenyan-born Mathew Njoroge, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Cape Town’s Drug Discovery and Development Centre, were selected from the hundreds of applicants to attend this year’s meeting.
Colin Pillai, head of global scientific capabilities at Novartis and responsible for the next generation scientist programme, said they were happy that Phuti and Mathew were awarded this opportunity.
The next generation scientist programme, now in its seventh year, has benefited 143 scientists and clinicians from 25 countries to date.
Women make up 50% of the participants at an average age of 29 years.
So far the program has hosted 62 African participants, of which 57 participants were based in South Africa.
