After my postdoc, I will return to Syria and work to achieve my big dream, which is to establish a research center.

I intend to disperse my achieved knowledge as one of the leading researchers in my country in the domain of microbial biotechnology, to support sustainable and prosperous agriculture.

“Am very proud to say that I am encouraging other Cameroonian female scientists to apply for the OWSD fellowship programme and some of them have obtained the grant."

I owe ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘where’ I am in my career and professional practice today to OWSD because without the PHD Fellowship, all my achievements today would have been nothing but bleak.

When I got my OWSD fellowship, it was an amazing feeling. Before getting the letter, my academic career was a dream, the letter made it possible.

Due to the war in Yemen, I had stopped studying for two years. This opportunity gave me the chance to complete my postgraduate studies.

I’ve been working on reptile and amphibian biodiversity for 10 years, and I know that there are still new species that need to be described.

I wanted to show women that it was possible that when you do agricultural sciences, you can go on and do more for your career development.

I wanted to do applied physics, not theoretical physics… I really wanted to use all of the knowledge that I acquired at university to explain our environment.

What fascinated me is that only 5% of microorganisms are harmful, and the rest are beneficiary.

The long-awaited dream

I want to be in the boardroom. I want to be part of the policy mechanism. I want my influence to go higher than the classroom.

OWSD has provided tremendous support in shaping my career as a researcher, science ambassador, role model for women scientists and a "think high" human being.

I have to think of something that can help us, that we can use based on resources that we have. The lack of things is the biggest inspiration in my life. I want to help my country.

OWSD's guidance and support allowed me to uncover hidden courage and realize aspects of myself that I never thought I possessed.

What has surprised me is the way technology is emerging and affecting the current state of research. We are encountering a fourth industrial revolution that entails advances in computing power, quantum computing and artificial intelligence, which has already been shown to alter the way we conduct research.