Black History Month 2021: Celebrating Black Scientists
It’s Black History Month in the UK, and we’re taking the opportunity to say a big thank you to the incredible black scientists who have contributed to or been included on our blog. We’ve been lucky enough to interview some inspiring people and to include their valuable advice in our Life Science Guides. We’ve shared the stories of some incredible researchers during nominations for our Lab Heroes Awards, and we've shared guest blogs on a wide range of subjects including building resilience, applying for graduate school funding, dealing with feelings of inadequacy and more.
Black people are still underrepresented in STEM fields, and that's why we’re proud to highlight some of the brilliant scientists who have shared their knowledge and advice with our online community over the last few years.
Interviews with Scientists
We have had some fascinating conversations with black scientists from around the world including Peter Ikhianosimhe Imoesi, a molecular neuroscientist at the University of Aberdeen who told us about his PhD research into the role of Vitamin A in body weight.
We also spoke to Mélise Edwards, a neuroscience PhD student at the University of Massachusetts who offered some fantastic advice to first year students on applying for funding, finding a good work/life balance, managing time commitments, and more.
We had a great conversation with Adele Edwards of the University of Nottingham who told us about her PhD research into the potential role of neural stem cells in the spinal cord during pain in early life.
Lab Heroes Awards - winner, runner-up & outstanding nominee
We have had so many incredible black scientists nominated for our Lab Heroes Awards over the last few years, with one being crowned our winner in 2018 and another a runner-up in 2020.
Dr Enitome Bafor of the University of Benin, Nigeria, was overall winner in 2018 after receiving more than 20 nominations from colleagues past and present. She was acknowledged for her passion, dedication, resourcefulness, academic accomplishments, organisation, progressiveness and more. Last year she wrote a fantastic article on building resilience in scientific research & academia for our Hello Bio blog which offered great advice for scientists at every stage of their academic career.
Dr Abiola Isawumi was a runner-up in last year’s competition, with 16 nominations from his colleague at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP). Abiola has also written for our blog, with an inspiring article on resilience & success in science.
Dr Priscilla Kolibea Mante was nominated for our 2020 awards by a colleague at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. Her nomination really caught our eye due to her extraordinary successes at an early age, specifically becoming the only African recipient of the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women In Science International Rising Talent Award in 2019.
Inspiring blogs
Over the last 12 months we’ve also been lucky enough to share some fantastic articles by inspiring female black scientists on the topics of graduate school funding and dealing with feelings of inadequacy.
Vanessa Mwebaza Muwanga of the University of Cape Town shared a fantastic article on graduate school funding with valuable advice for students on research, focus, mindset and more.
Pearl Akazue of the University of Benin shared her experiences of anxiety, self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy during her research career. Her inspiring blog post offers advice on handling imposter syndrome, developing a positive mindset and practicing gratitude during your research career.
Make your voice heard
If you would like to contribute an article or blog piece, or be interviewed by us here at Hello Bio we would love to hear from you! Our blog reaches a global community of fantastic life scientists, and we're always looking for new voices to share personal stories, insight, career advice, and more. If you'd like to be interviewed about your research or write a blog post about a topic you're passionate about, send us an email at hello@hellobio.com and we'll be in touch!
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If you enjoyed this article, why not check out the other resources available on our blog. We are passionate about supporting life scientists including early career life scientists and PhD students - with really low-priced reagents and biochemicals, early career scientist grants, and resources to help with both personal and professional development. We know how tough it is - so we hope you find these helpful!
More General Support for Life Scientists
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