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| The OWSD newsletter brings you the latest news and announcements from the Secretariat and from our international network. In this edition, we announce the 2025 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award winners, celebrate the winners of our Short Talks, Big Impacts competition, introduce the newest WISDOM scholars, and more. | |
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| 5 women scientists win the OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards
in Inclusive Health
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Manal Badrasawi (Palestine), Alejandra Paniagua-Avila (Guatemala), Sarmila Tandukar (Nepal), Reem Obaydo (Syria), and Halima Sumayya Twabi (Malawi) have been awarded the 2025 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World for their contributions to research in inclusive health, advancing UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being. The research conducted by this year's winners spans a diverse range of critical health issues, from innovative approaches to maternal and child health, sustainable pharmaceutical analysis, environmental health interventions, and advancements in mental health care. Their work not only addresses some of the most pressing health challenges in their respective regions, but also serves as a beacon of leadership, mentoring and community engagement.
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| Announcing the winners of OWSD's
Short Talks, Big Impacts competition
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On March 14, OWSD held the exciting finale competition of its Short Talks, Big Impacts competition, a live event where OWSD members presented their diverse research in a dynamic 3-minute format. The competition was designed to emphasize the importance for scientists of effective presentation and communications skills, and especially of how to highlight the contribution their research makes to solving local and global challenges. Four winners were selected from 11 finalists, who all were selected by audience member vote during three previous regional competitions in Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, and Asia and the Arab region.
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 | | Meet the OWSD Scientists: Myo Ma Ma Than | | | |
Agricultural scientist Myo Ma Ma Than, a 2004 OWSD PhD fellow, is working to empower women in Myanmar’s agricultural economy, an approach she calls female-led farming. Seventy percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas, and their livelihoods rely on the agriculture sector, women included. But “the female role is invisible,” she says — something she is committed to changing. | |
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In this corner we highlight some of the most exciting recent achievements of our fellows, alumnae, and awardees. Way to go, ladies!
- Mary Adjepong, a 2022 Early Career fellow from Ghana, was promoted to Senior Lecturer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). She additionally received a research award from the KNUST research fund for a project to improve food safety of fruits in Ghana.
- Paola Andrea Alvizuri Tintaya, a 2023 Early Career Fellow from Bolivia, was a keynote speaker at two events organized by the Bolivian National Chapter of OWSD: the ‘Charlando con Cientificas 2025’ event in April 2025, aimed to motivate young women to enter science, and the ‘Beyond Limits: The Legacy of Women’ event organized on the occasion of International Day of Women and Girls in Science (IDWGS), in cooperation with UN Women. She was also featured in an article and video produced by her university for IDWGS, as part of their strengthened commitment to supporting women in science.
- Nana Ama Mireku-Gyimah, a 2014 PhD fellow from Ghana, was inducted as a Fellow of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP), having successfully completed training to qualify as a specialist in the area of Drug Production and Quality Assurance, with sub-specialty in Herbal Medicine Production and Quality Assurance. She is one of only two fellows inducted with this sub-specialty, the first of its kind in the sub-region. She was also elected Vice Chair of the Faculty of Drug Production and Quality Assurance of the WAPCP, and was awarded best podium presenter at the 2025 Annual General Meeting and Scientific Symposium of the WAPCP for her oral presentation on 'Evaluation of quality and adulteration with Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors of eleven popular male sexual-enhancing herbal products on the Ghanaian market'.
- Natalia Montellano Duran, a 2019 Early Career fellow from Bolivia, and Anna Msigwa, a 2022 Early Career fellow from Tanzania, were accepted to the Global Young Academy, and will participate in the annual meeting of the GYA in India.
- Alice Nabatanzi, a 2022 Early Career fellow from Uganda, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences and Biotechnology at Makerere University. She was also featured on the University of Makerere website for her development of a novel chicken feed made with a cocktail of bacteriocins and phytobiotics, intended to curb the use of antibiotic growth promoters in chicken.
- Antonella Rivera, a 2024 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award winner, and Mayra Núñez-Vallecillo, a 2021 PhD fellow, both from Honduras, co-authored an article on ‘Drivers and potential solutions for transnational Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Gulf of Honduras’, published in People and Nature. Their research focused on the Cayman Crown reef, a transboundary area shared with Guatemala and Belize, and combined household surveys and multi-stakeholder workshops involving fishers, NGOs, and government agencies.
- Tahsina Farah Sanam, a 2023 Early Career Fellow from Bangladesh, received the 'Dream Winner Women Award 2025' in the category of Outstanding Contribution to AI and Smart Healthcare Innovation from business magazine Arthakantha, in collaboration with NRB World Organization and Business America magazine. She was additionally promoted to Professor in the Institute of Appropriate Technology, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), and was invited to DBC New television news channel to talk about challenges facing women in STEM and how to overcome them.
- Induni Wathsala Sirwardane, a 2023 Early Career fellow from Sri Lanka, received the Vice Chancellor’s Award for the highest amount of external research grants in the Faculty of Computing and Technology at the University of Kelaniya for the year 2024. She was also elected Secretary of the Chemical Sciences Section of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Sciences for the year 2025, and was elected to the executive committee of the Sri Lankan National Chapter of OWSD for 2025-2027.
- Patience Tugume, a 2023 Early Career fellow from Uganda, received the Vice Chancellors research excellence award at the 75th graduation ceremony of Makerere University, in recognition of exemplary contribution to the body of knowledge through scholarly publication. She was additionally promoted to the position of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences and Biotechnology at Makerere University.
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OWSD Around the World
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Here are a few recent highlights from our network of 57 active National Chapters.
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The OWSD Honduras National Chapter, in collaboration with the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the National Autonomous University of Honduras, held the 3rd National Symposium on Women in Science in Honduras on February 11, in the framework of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and the International Year of Quantum Technology (IYQ). The Symposium was titled 'Accelerating Innovation and Empowerment of Honduran Women in STEAM.'
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The OWSD Pakistan National Chapter shared two video messages for its members from influential Pakistani women on the occasion of International Day of Women and Girls in Science in February: from Huma Baqai, Rector of Millennium Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship, and Zahra Hasan, distinguished professor at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. They also released a video tribute to the dedicated executive council members, women, and girls who play an integral role in organizing OWSD Pakistan National Chapter events with highlights from events across Pakistan in 2024. In April, they organized an exclusive lecture for their members by Dr. Hyun-Goo Kim on 'Positional Cloning in the Era of Next-Generation Sequencing: Advancing Disease Gene Discovery'. In this talk hosted at the University of Karachi, Dr. Kim explored how modern sequencing technologies have transformed positional cloning, enabling faster and more precise identification of disease-associated genes.
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 Video messages from Huma Baqai (top) and Zahra Hasan (bottom) to OWSD Pakistan members
 Video tribute from OWSD Pakistan on occasion of IDWGS
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The OWSD Bolivia National Chapter hosted the event 'Charlando con Científicas' (Chatting with Scientists) in 4 cities throughout the country: La Paz, Santa Cruz, Sucre and Cochabamba. The events were hosted at public cafes and bars, inviting members of the public to come for informal discussions with scientists.
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 Members of the OWSD Honduras National Chapter at the 3rd National Symposium on Women in Science in Honduras on February 11. |
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| That's it for this edition - if you like this newsletter, please share it. |
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| Copyright © 2021 The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World
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