Four Ghanaians women scientist are among 20 others whose excellence has won them up to $5000 as grants under the OWSD Early Career fellowship programme.
Dr Mavis Owureku-Asare, Dr Mercy Badu, Dr Edem Mahu and Dr Priscilla Kolibea Mante have been chosen as part of the second cohort of the OWSD Early Career fellowship programme.
The funding for the fellowship is provided by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is to enable them to lead research projects at their home institutes, and to build up research groups that will attract international visitors.
The Early Career fellows were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates based on the strength of their research proposals and their proven scientific excellence as well as leadership skills.
Meet all the 4 Ghanaian scientists who excelled.
Dr Mavis Owureku-Asare, Centre Manager, Radiation Technology Centre, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission
She is developing new solar drying technologies that can be used to process, add value, and extend the shelf life of tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables. High post-harvest losses (up to 50%) are incurred along the tomato value chain in Ghana because of the absence of facilities to store, process and extend the tomatoes’ shelf life.
Ghana does not have an effective processing mechanism for tomatoes, largely owing to the cost of production, and currently relies on importing a large number of tomato products, in particular, tomato paste.
Dr Owureku-Asare hopes that her research on various types of solar drying methods will lead to an affordable and sustainable commercial processing method to produce tomato puree and reduce the reliance on imported tomato paste and other products, that can eventually be applied to other food products as well.
Dr Priscilla Kolibea Mante, Senior Lecturer, Department of Pharmacology, KNUST
Dr Edem Manu, Lecturer, Department of Marine and Fisheries Science, University of Ghana
Dr Mercy Badu, Senior Lecturer, Department of Chemistry, KNUST
