As the young scientists in the African continent continue to jostle and thrive for positions of pre-eminence in their fields, Dr. Alphonsus Ugwu, Senior Lecturer, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences at Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, and nine other researchers have won the 2023 African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI) fellowship awards from among 296 researchers that competed for this year’s edition across the African continent.
Speaking on the APTI fellowship awards sponsored by the African Academy of Science (AAS) in partnership with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Peggy Oti-Boateng, AAS Executive Director, explained that investing in early-career scientists is a vital ingredient in the transformation of Africa into a knowledge-based and technology-led continent. Dr. Oti-Boateng added that the academy is committed to facilitating research and innovation exchanges to enhance African research leadership to transform lives in the continent and deliver the Africa that we want.
He highlighted that the recipients of the fellowships will assume their postdoctoral training in NIH host laboratories in October. He mentioned that the research activities would focus on specific global health research priority areas including human immunobiology, microbiome research, drug discovery, genomics, HIV, malaria, maternal, neonatal and child health.
Commenting on the fellowships, Dr. Peter Kilmax, Acting Associate Director for International Research at NIH, stated, ‘we are thrilled to welcome these 10 exceptional scientists with diverse research interests. He explained that the joint APTI programme brings outstanding early-career African researchers to NIH and strengthens our research partnerships and research capacity in Africa over the long run.
Speaking on the achievement of Dr. Ugwu, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Anthony Akinlo said that Redeemer’s University is proud to have many outstanding researchers, Dr. Ugwu. He advised him to keep the flag of excellence flying high for other upcoming researchers to emulate.
