A Nigerian woman scientist, Dr Taiwo Olayemi Elufioye, has emerged the 2014 Early Career Women Scientists Award in Developing Countries.
Elufioye, of the Department of Pharmacognosy in University of Ibadan, was the only female nominee from Africa.
She won the award for her research on the treatment properties of native Nigerian plants, with particular bias on the effectiveness of different species in treating malaria, wounds, memory loss, leprosy and cancer.
Commenting on the award, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Isaac Adewole, described her as a pride of Nigeria and the African continent as a whole, saying the feat recorded by Dr Elufioye would inspire other women in science.
The Vice Chancellor assured that University of Ibadan would continue to provide the needed environment for her researchers to be able not only to compete but come out tops in global community of scholars.Other winners are from Central and South Asia, East and South-East Asia and the Pacific, and the Arab Region.
The Awards was jointly organised by Elsevier Foundation, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and was held in Chicago.
The focus of the 2014 award, which was the application of Chemistry of nature to pharmaceutical science, attracted $5,000 and all expenses paid attendance at the 2014 AAAS annual meeting.
