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Ashwag Mukhtar is working as a visiting researcher at the National Cancer Research Centre thanks to the Ellas Investigan programme organised by Fundación Mujeres por África
“It will be the most important experience of my life, I am now part of CNIO,” says Sudanese scientist Ashwag Mukhtar, assistant professor with the Department of Histopathology and Cytology at the University of Alneelain (Khartoum), referring to her time at the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), where she has been a visiting researcher linked to the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group of this centre since last December.
Ashwag Mohammed Mukhtar is one of the African scientists selected by Fundación Mujeres por África to take part in its Ellas Investigan programme, which promotes stays in Spain for senior African women researchers from affiliated scientific institutes. The stays are for six months and allow these researchers to carry out, in collaboration with these institutes, projects previously selected by the programme’s Scientific Committee. In this case, funding was provided by Exolum.
The Sudanese scientist aims to compare bladder cancer in Spain and North African countries. She will compare and contrast the environmental factors causing this cancer and genetic diversities in order to provide important findings and data regarding this type of cancer and its treatments.
Holder of a PhD from the University of Alneelain, Ashwag Mohammed Mukhtar explains what her work will entail during her time in Spain: “On the one hand, I am conducting a meta-analysis, focusing on reanalysing the treatment of bladder cancer, genetic mutation, and mortality, and comparing it with data from the Spanish Bladder Cancer Foundation. On the other hand, I intend to determine the expression of certain genes that can predict the type of chemotherapy. We are doing this on Sudanese tissue samples and comparing our findings with Spanish tissue samples.”
As well as science, her other passions are music, meditation, and nature walks, as she explains in this video. In it, she gives recommendations about the Sudanese music she likes most, including the band AGD Aljalad.“Having the opportunity to work in another country is a very enriching experience, both professionally and personally,” says the scientist.
About Ellas Investigan
Ellas Investigan (Women Researching) is the most important programme promoted by Fundación Mujeres por África in the scientific field and has achieved spectacular growth. Since it was launched in 2014 with five associated research centres, it has grown to more than 20 affiliated centres and has launched seven editions.
The centres brought into this programme in the last edition are the Barcelona Institute of Material Science (ICMAB); IIS Biodonostia; and INCLIVA, Research Institute of the Clinical Hospital in Valencia. The company Abertis has also been brought on board as a sponsor, which will finance the chosen researcher’s stay at the National Biotechnology Centre on Biodiversity Issues. So far more than a hundred African women scientists have been involved in Ellas Investigan.
About CNIO
CNIO is a Spanish institution dedicated to the research, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. CNIO has obtained accreditation as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence for the third time in a row. It is ranked seventh among the world’s best cancer research centres (according to the Scimago report; Nature Index) and has been named Europe’s leading cancer research centre.
More than 450 scientists work at CNIO to transfer their results quickly and efficiently to Spain’s National Health System and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology market. In recent years, the strand of research devoted to metastasis – responsible for 90% of cancer deaths worldwide – has been strengthened with the incorporation of several fully dedicated research groups. Interdisciplinarity has also been boosted by recruiting computer experts to gain a more in-depth view of the complexity of cancer and to propose new therapeutic hypotheses.
One of the goals at CNIO is to bring science closer to society through initiatives such as CNIO Arte , a project that brings together scientists and artists to create new works of art around scientific research, and CNIO Friends, a philanthropic platform through which any person, company or association can support cancer research carried out at the Centre, and through which a CNIO Friends International Contracts Programme has been launched to attract research talent.
source/content: cnio.es (headline edited)
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Ashwag Mukhtar. / Laura M. Lombardía. CNIO
Ashwag Mukhtar. Visiting researcher from Sudan. Women for Africa Foundation / source: youtube.com / canalcnio
How do you use tech/data to tackle important issues? Tell us about your work.
Data, specifically qualitative research methods, is important to apply a systems lens of work as a means to connect the dots between the various solutions I’ve been mapping. Looking at a portfolio of solutions rather than stand-alone silver bullets creates evidence to better understand complex problems that are in nature wicked and interlinked. This method of starting with the solution and portfolio of solutions becomes a proxy indicator of a need and blind spot in a system or system of systems and/or a signal of change taking place.
I work with ordinary people who create extraordinary things to adapt to change quickly. My work is then to analyse that to share with the UNDP network and government counterparts for better decision making.
Solutions mapping is like pointillism. A series of dots may not make much sense but when it begins to connect and harmonise, you step back and see a picture. An example of that was during Covid-19 and how micro enterprises were forced to figure out ways to continue work under limitations of social and safe distancing. Observing a pattern of cashless solutions and connecting these with similar solutions both in Sudan, regionally and across the globe underlined the need but also an accelerated shift to a cashless economy as result of this new normal.
What was the most impactful project you worked on in the past year?
One of the ways to support a thriving local innovation ecosystem is one that facilitates this very ecosystem to see itself and its diverse and often unusual stakeholders.
If I were to liken the current ecosystem in Sudan, I would describe it as a map of islands with few bridges in between. When you start to ‘see’ solutions, as a mapper, you can see in all the ways they connect, align and interlink in this bigger and collective effort to create impact.
Everywhere I go, I cannot stop emphasising the ripple effect of the Solutions Fair held in early 2020. Whereby for the first time, stakeholders from different groups spanning academia, private and public sectors where in the same giant hall as Giulio Quaggiotto, Head the UNDP Strategic Innovations Unit has coined, the development mutants. A social experiment of sorts, of what takes place when the traditional development actors meet the unusual and unexpected.
The organic connections, knowledge sharing and diffusion that begin to form from which a community of solution holders emerged. With the first Covid-19 case reported in March and subsequent lockdown, it was this very community network that I was able to tap into to understand how they were responding, pivoting with Covid-19. The socio-economic impact but also the incredible resilience to reconfigure and do things differently under this immense and limiting challenge. How this network was connecting, working and collaborating with other networks. From university labs shifting to production of hand-sanitizers for students to distribute for free in the urban centres, to a social enterprise supporting highly affected street tailors into an organised collective to mass produce re-usable masks. The power of connections and compound impact that bridge the usual with the unusual.
What are some innovations from the pandemic that have caught your eye?
Indigenous Sound Bites. This completely grassroot effort was carried out by Dr. Hiba Abdelrahim of Sudan Unity Networking who first noticed the glaring gap in inclusive Covid-19 communication available in local and indigenous languages. She started to reach out to a network of Sudanese polyglots on Facebook to record sound bites of Covid-19 WHO guidelines and safety precautions. Through networks and network of networks on social media from Telegram, Whatsapp, Youtube, a collective distribution approach was used to share and reshare these sound bites to ensure this reaches volunteers on the ground in rural and hard to reach areas to share this vital and critical health information.
What is one unexpected learning from 2020?
2020 was a year of personal growth and learning forced by being cut off from the usual pace and external stimuli of everyday life and way of work. Facing a collective and shared challenge caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the uncertainty of this new reality and what that means at a personal and professional level created a space to pause for much needed reflection on what really matters. Family and well-being, particularly mental well-being, and health have always been important. But what was unexpected was how much that really is a priority at the core of the choices I make and should and ought to be making.
In a way, the great re-set of this year was a wider ripple effect for social solidarity which emphasised the need for better support for care work and care economies. An integral support system that was consistently undervalued but came to the forefront with the pandemic in the welfare of, for and by communities.
What are your priorities for 2021?
Balance. Solutions mapping, and I am biased for obvious reasons, is an important protocol that introduces mixed research methods and approaches to development practice. The importance of constant and consistent engagement with the systems outside the work of UNDP, and connecting to those closest to the problem in the context of development challenges, allows solutions mappers to be a bridge to share, diffuse and shine light on context responsive knowledge with decision makers at UNDP and government counterparts that may influence programming, policy or inform better partnerships and possibly open unexpected pipelines in the market.
All the while, it is imperative to embed the practice and protocols of solutions mapping within UNDP thereby creating movements and networks of UNDP mappers in the country office to re-learn to see, observe and engage with ecosystems through this new lens. This is akin to having one foot out with one foot in, a balancing act to ensure that I am not leaning heavily on one foot at the expense of the other.
What tool or technique particularly interests you for 2021?
Ethnographic cartography (EC) is a method I am particularly keen to explore its possible applications in the context of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in Sudan. EC inspired by Everyday Geographies and Personal Geographies, is a multi-sensory approach combining two activities.
The first, MyWalks is an activity that is intended to reawaken the senses to look for the unexpected. A simple premise of walking through a familiar route, re-walked or a new route walked for the first time. The experience of the journey starting at A is more important by engaging the senses and observing rather than reaching the destination at B.
The second, MessyMaps is the technique to record this multi-sensory experience through images, sound and notes. The outcome of this supports better understanding and engagement of the ecosystem in which I am mapping solutions and how these solutions exist, interlink and engage with the environment it operates out of and with.
I first came across an application of this method through the amazing work “Other Maps” undertaken by a fellow Solution Mapper, Paulina Jimenez at UNDP Ecuador. In academia, this emerging method was used to produce qualitative GIS representations of resilience. In this use case, Dr Faith Evans incorporated emotion, social connections and experience to present an experimental map visualisation of informal settlements in Kenya.
Which other countries inspire you and why?
India. As I onboarded to the Accelerator Lab, the cohort of AccLab mappers had the unique opportunity to get first-hand knowledge and support from the Accelerator Lab Network knowledge partner, the Honey Bee Network and GIAN. Virtual classes led by Prof Anil Gupta and Dr Animika Dey on mapping inclusive grassroots innovation was an eye opener to the work led by India over the last two decades to recognise, incorporate and support grassroots innovations in the National Innovation Policy. As one publication describes it, propositioning grassroots innovations in the S&T policies of India created a space for “the innovation agenda [to] shift from presenting grassroots innovation as a divider of the national innovation wealth to a provider of it”. (1)
The kind of effort India has spearheaded is one I would hope can be galvanised for Sudan to learn from and emulate.
Who do you admire? Who is your hero?
My grandfather. A food scientist, teacher, researcher, former FAO and fierce advocate for R&D turned entrepreneur and thought leader in the F&B industry of Sudan.
I remember once asking him why he did not invest in better advertising for his products or fancier packaging. His response was that his responsibility and priority is to ensure accessibility for the everyday Sudanese informed by the forefront of sustainable food production research. In which the everyday consumer not only benefits from the product itself but is able to re-use and repurpose the packaging for domestic needs.
The value system he has abided by until his retirement almost a decade ago is one I admire and have grown to appreciate even more as a development practitioner. The principles he went by still ring true and relevant in industrial innovation and sustainable consumption and production today.
(1) Jain, A., & Verloop, J. (2012). Repositioning grassroots innovation in India’s S&T policy: From divider to provider. Current Science, 103(3), 282-285. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24085031
Scientists play one of the most significant roles in our world, most importantly today as we deal with a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 300,000 people. Throughout history, there have been many accomplished and inspiring Sudanese scientists who have changed our understanding of the world around us with their research, discoveries and tangible impact.
Here are some internationally acclaimed Sudanese scientists in Sudan and across the world that you should know about:
Ismail Abdel Rahim El Gizouli
Image source: Ismail El Gizouli
Ismail Abdel Rahim El Gizouli is an energy and environment specialist. He was member of the bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2002 to 2008 and was re-elected for another term from 2008 to 2015. He then acted as interim chairman of the IPCC in 2015. In addition, he was the vice-chair of the Facilitative Branch of the Compliance Committee of the UNFCCC from 2005 to 2007 and was the Chair of the Facilitative Branch and Co-Chair of the Compliance Committee of UNFCCC from 2007 to 2009.
He received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematic and Physics from the University of Khartoum in 1971 and a Master of Science in Operation Research & Statistics from the University of Aston in Birmingham, UK in 1980.
El Gizouli worked as a freelancer and conducted many consultancies for the African Development Bank, World Bank, UNEP, FAO and African Energy Policy Research Network (AFREPRN). In 1998, he joined The Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources in Sudan as a consultant on all UNDP-Government joint climate change projects.
He has participated in many international, regional and national conferences, meetings and symposiums in industry planning, sustainable development, energy, environment and climate change. In addition, he published many papers and is one of four authors of two energy-related books published by ZED Books England. He also contributed as Review Editor to many IPCC Reports including Safeguarding the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate System, Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (Main Report and Technical Summary), Working Group III contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report (Mitigation of Climate Change) and Fourth Assessment Synthesis Report.
Dr Balgis Osman Elasha
Dr Balgis Osman-Elashais senior scientist at the forefront of global research on climate change. She has been a climate change expert at the Compliance and Safeguards Division at the African Development Bank (AfDB) since 2009. She holds a PhD in Forestry Science, a master’s degree in Environmental Science, and a Bachelor of Science with honour in Forestry and Agricultural Science. She has more than 17 years of experience in the field of climate change with a special focus on vulnerability and adaptation assessment related to African countries and the Middle East, emphasising the human dimension of global environmental changes.
Dr Osman-Elasha has reviewed a number of scientific papers to Elsevier and other highly reputable journals as well as a guest editor to a number of scientific publications. Before joining the African Development Bank, she was a senior researcher at the Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources (HCENR)-Sudan. Her research focuses on vulnerability and adaptation assessment in drought-prone in Africa.
Dr Osman-Elasha is the winner of the UNEP Champions of the Earth Award for outstanding environmentalists and the winner of Lead Authors-Nobel Peace Prize. She is also a member of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Professor Elfatih Eltahir
Professor Elfatih Eltahir is the Breene M Kerr Professor of Hydrology and Climate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a focus on sustainable development in Africa. Elfatih earned a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Khartoum, a Master of Science in hydrology from the National University of Ireland, and a Master of Science in meteorology and a Doctor of Science (Sc.D) in Hydroclimatology from MIT.
Professor Eltahir received the US Presidential Early Career Award in 1997. He is an elected fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and a member of the Sudanese National Academy of Science. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the International Center of Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. In 1999, Professor Eltahir received the Kuwait Prize in Applied Sciences for his work on Climate Change, making him the youngest person to receive this prestigious prize, offered to scientists from Arab countries. In 2017, Professor Eltahir received the Hydrologic Sciences Award from the American Geophysical Union.
Dr Hiba Salah-Eldin Mohamed
Image source: iend.org
Dr Hiba Salah-Eldin Mohamed is a molecular biologist at the University of Khartoum. She studied zoology at the university, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1993, followed by a master’s degree in 1998. She then received her PhD from the University of Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) in Cambridge, the UK in 2002. Her doctoral research, “The Role of Host Genetics in Susceptibility to Kala-azar in Sudan”, was under the supervision of Jenefer Blackwell, a well-known Professor of Molecular Parasitology. Mohamed remained at the CIMR as a postdoctoral fellow. She, along with Professor Blackwell, were later awarded the Wellcome Trust Research Development Award (2004-2007). She then moved back to Sudan and joined the University of Khartoum to be a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology.
Mohamed was awarded the 2007 Royal Society Pfizer Award for her research on understanding the genetics of kala-azar, which is also known as Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL). In 2010, Mohamed was appointed a Fellow of the Global Young Academy.
Dr Abdel Rahman’s breakthrough in growing sugar cane method involved taking cells from plant leaves, shoots or roots and growing them in a liquid culture to produce artificial seeds able to germinate. Her results and patented techniques garnered global attention and attracted interest from huge research and production companies across the world. The breakthrough led to cheaper and more productive cultivation in developing countries.
Dr Abdel Rahman passed away in 2015 at the age 59 in the UK after a fight against cancer.
Professor Mohamed H A Hassan
Image source: TWAS
Professor Mohamed H A Hassan is co-chair of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), a global network of science academies, and Chairman of the Council of the United Nations University (UNU).
He received his higher education in the UK from Newcastle University and University of Oxford. After obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics from the University of Oxford, he returned to Sudan to lecture at the University of Khartoum. He later became the Dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the university.
Professor Hassan has published several articles in Theoretical Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy; Wind Erosion, Dust and Sand Transport in Dry Lands; and Science and Technology in the Developing World.
He was the founding Executive Director of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), President of the African Academy of Sciences, and Chairman of the Honorary Presidential Advisory Council for Science and Technology in Nigeria.
He also serves on a number of boards of international organisations worldwide, including Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training (START) in the USA; Bibliotheca in Alexandrina in Egypt; the Council of Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum in Japan; the International Science Programme in Sweden; the Science Initiative Group (SIG) in the USA; and the Centre for International Development (ZEF) in Germany. He is a member of several merit-based academies of science, including TWAS; the African Academy of Sciences; Islamic World Academy of Sciences; Academia Colombiana deCiencias Exactas, ísicas y Naturales; AcadémieRoyale des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, Belgium; Pakistan Academy of Sciences; Academy of Sciences of Lebanon; Cuban Academy of Sciences; and Academy of Sciences of South Africa.
Mohamed Osman Baloola
Image source: Mohamed Osman Baloola’s Facebook page
Engineer Mohammed Osman Baloola is a Sudanese scientist and inventor who was named among The World’s 500 Most influential Arabs in 2012 and 2013 for his work on diabetes ‘remote monitoring and control system for diabetes symptoms’. He has been a Teaching Assistant of Biomedical Engineering at the Ajman University of Science and Technology since 2010. Baloola won a science and innovation award at the Arabian Business Awards 2011 in Dubai. In addition, he won AED40,000 (USD11,000) during a Sharjah Television competition for his invention of a remote monitoring and control system for diabetes patients via mobile phone.
Baloola received a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Ajman University of Science and Technology in 2009. He later joined Ajman University as a Teaching Assistant in the faculty of Engineering.
Dr Muntaser Ibrahim
Image source: Research Gate
Dr Muntaseer Ibrahim is a Sudanese geneticist and professor of molecular biology at the University of Khartoum, where he leads its Institute of Endemic Diseases, a research and training centre on endemic diseases in the university. His research focuses on human genetic diversity in Africa. Dr Ibrahim is a founding member of the African Society of Human Genetics and co-founded the Sudanese National Academy of Science (SNAS). He is also a member of The World Academy of Sciences. He has co-authored more than 180 original peer-reviewed research publications, including work published in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, Nature Genetics, and other major journals.
Dr Nashwa Abo Alhassan Eassa
Image source: Picuki
Dr Nashwa Abo Alhassan Eassa is an assistant professor of physics at Al-Neelain University in Khartoum. She received a Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of Khartoum, a Master of Science in nanotechnology and materials physics from Sweden’s Linköping University, followed by a PhD from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in South Africa.
Dr Eassa founded the non-governmental organisation ‘Sudanese Women in Sciences’ and is a member of Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World’s South African Institute of Physics. In 2015, Dr Eassa won the Elsevier Foundation Award for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World. She has been a candidate as Arab Countries Vice-President for Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World.
Professor Widad Ibrahim Elmahboub
Professor Widad Ibrahim Elmahboub is a great scientist and astrophysicist. She has proved herself as a distinguished and competent scholar and scientist in her field. Having finished her college studies in applied mathematics and astrophysics in Sudan and Egypt, she was received a master’s degree in Engineering Physics by Wisconsin-Madison University, followed by a doctorate degree in astrophysical engineering.
Prof Elmahboub started her scientific career as a professor of astrophysics and remote sensing systems at Hampton University. Then she moved on to the research and analysis of planetary components at NASA with the main focus on enhancing the accuracy of satellite-based remote sensing imaging and data. Prof. Elmahboub has introduced a highly accurate computer-simulated mathematical model followed by the implementation of the algorithm and atmospheric correction method which enabled scientists and astrophysicists to obtain much more accurate and refined satellite images of Mars surface. Additionally, Prof Elmahboub has authored, co-authored and edited many articles in scientific journals and periodicals on remote sensing imaging technology, spectroscopy and simulated mathematical modelling.
Professor Sharief Babiker
Image source: ICCEEE’s Facebook page
Professor Sharief Babiker is a professor in the Electronics Department at the University of Khartoum and a Chairman of the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanities ‘IEEE_sudan’ Subsection.
Prof Babiker received his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Khartoum, a master’s degree in telecommunications and information systems obtained in Essex University, the UK, followed by a nanoelectronics PhD degree at Glasgow University, Scotland. By the end of 2000, Prof Babiker was working on submicron semiconductor devices research at the Nanoelectronics Research Centre, University of Glasgow as well as on aerospace projects at Thales Avionics, the UK.
