President Jacob Zuma has congratulated winners of the 2015 Women in Science Awards held at the Hilton Sandton Hotel in Johannesburg on Thursday, 13 August 2015 to recognise excellence among women scientists and researchers.
“We are very excited as a nation to witness women performing so well and displaying a high degree of excellence in the fields of science and technology as well as research. It is therefore my pleasure to congratulate, on behalf of government and all the people of South Africa, the winners of the 2015 Women in Science Awards which were held this past week to recognise women who have made a remarkable contribution in this very important industry for our country’s development,” said the President.
The Department of Science and Technology host these awards annually during the Women’s Month, August, to reward excellence among women scientists and researchers.
The awards' theme this year was "Science for a sustainable future", highlighting the contribution made by women researchers towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The year 2015 marks the target date for achieving the MGDs.
President Zuma further said as the country continues to celebrate Women’s Month, government will host various activities and awards to honour women who have performed outstandingly in various fields and industries.
“As government we will continue to support initiatives led by the women to ensure a total empowerment and emancipation of women," he said.
“During the Women’s Day we released the first Government Report on the Status of Women in the South African economy which identified some of the areas where society broadly has been successful in enabling women’s full participation in the economy, and others where there is a need for refocused efforts,” the President said.
The winners of the 2015 Women in Science Awards are as follow:
- Professor Maureen Coetzee - Distinguished Woman Scientist (Life Sciences): Prof Coetzee has been recognised for her outstanding work in the field of medical entomology. Her research interests include insecticide resistance in the major African malaria vector mosquitoes, biodiversity within the genus Anopheles, novel methods for controlling malaria vectors, and vector-parasite interactions.
- Professor Marla Trindade – Distinguished Woman Scientist (Life Sciences): Prof Trindade is currently the Director of the Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics, an internationally recognised research centre in the Department of Biotechnology at University of Western Cape, comprising a team of over 45 researchers and staff, and is leading the country in the area of mining microbial genomes for novel biotechnologically relevant enzymes and products. She is also the Vice President of the South African Society for Microbiology.
- Professor Lindiwe Zungu – Distinguished Woman Researcher (Humanities and Sciences): Prof. Zungu is a full Professor of Health Studies at the University of South Africa. Prof. Zungu’s research outputs have contributed to workers’ health and safety, for instance, guidelines for the redesign of safety clothing for women in mining. Her guidelines have been accepted as a national standard for the mining sector, and she continues to receive invitations to make presentations on the guidelines to stakeholders such as the Safety in Mines Research Advisory Committee and other key stakeholders like the Chamber of Mines.
- Dr Gina Ziervogel- Distinguished Woman Researcher (Humanities and Sciences: Dr Ziervogel’s work has contributed to Millenium Development Goal (MDG) 7 (ensure environmental sustainability), where she has situated environmental concerns within the broader development paradigm, helping to address MDG 1 (eradicating poverty and hunger) as well. Her work has focused on adaptation to the impacts of climate change, from household level up to village and municipal level. Dr Ziervogel is a senior lecturer in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science and a research fellow in the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
President Zuma has also congratulated all finalists in all categories of these prestigious awards and said their nomination has shown that the country recognises their immense contribution in this field and should continue to work hard in improving the lives of the people of South Africa.
The President further encouraged young women and girls to choose fields like research, science and technology and other currently male -dominated fields as their career disciplines to ensure full active participation of women in all fields of economy.
Enquiries:
Bongani Majola
Cell: 082 339 1993
Email: bonganim@presidency.gov.za
