OWSD celebrates 100th graduate
Nwe Nwe Htwe of Myanmar becomes the 100th young woman scientist to graduate from the OWSD Fellowship programme
The Organization for Women Scientists for the Developing World (OWSD) is celebrating the graduation of Nwe Nwe Htwe of Myanmar. Dr. Htwe is the 100th graduate to emerge from the organization’s fellowship programme that supports young women scientists from sub-Saharan Africa and other Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
“While all our graduates are special, we are especially pleased to reach the landmark figure of 100,” says Prof. Xin Fang, a member of the presidium of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and elected president of OWSD. “This marks the steady growth of our fellowship programme over the past 13 years and gives us great incentive to continue expanding our efforts to support women scientists in the developing world where they are very much under-represented and under-appreciated.”
The newly graduated Dr. Htwe was awarded a full-time fellowship that began in January 2007 and ended, after 4 years of intense study, with her successfully defending her PhD thesis in her viva exam in July 2011.
The salinization of soils, often caused by poor irrigation practices, is an increasing problem in many countries as the increased salt concentrations typically inhibit plant growth. Efforts are under way across the globe to find ways to adapt to this situation. It is hoped that Htwe’s research, on ‘Genetic transformation of rice cultivars for salinity tolerance by particle bombardment’, carried out at the Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), under the supervision of Prof. Marziah Mahmood, will lead to new varieties of rice that can be grown in soils containing high concentrations of salt.
“My studies were mainly aimed to establish a suitable in vitro culture system for five selected Malaysian rice genotypes under high salt concentrations,” explains Htwe. “Using particle bombardment to produce transgenic rice, I also successfully introduced the delta 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylase (P5CS) cDNA into the genomes of six rice lines. In these plants, levels of proline were increased 9-fold compared to non-transformed plants under 250mM NaCl stress. These lines will now be integrated into rice breeding programmes for further assessment of their benefits.”
Having graduated from UPM, Htwe has now returned to her home country, Myanmar, and taken up her former position as deputy supervisor at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.
“I would like to thank the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) for its generous financial support of my graduate studies,” she affirms. “I am have now returned to Myanmar where I hope to continue my research and also aim to improve the life of farmers through the transfer of technologies.”
Editors’ notes
The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) formerly TWOWS (the Third World Organization for Women in Science), is the first international forum uniting women scientists from the South with the objective of strengthening their role in the development process and promoting their representation in scientific and technological leadership. The organization currently has more than 4,000 members.
OWSD provides Postgraduate Training Fellowships for Women Scientists from Sub-Saharan Africa and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Under the scheme, training, leading to a PhD, is carried out at centres of excellence in the developing world. The aim of the scheme is to contribute to the emergence of a new generation of women leaders in science and technology, and to promote their effective participation in the scientific and technological development of their countries.
The fellowship is open to qualified young women science graduates (generally below 40 years of age) from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and/or LDCs. The host institute where the applicant wishes to pursue her doctorate degree must be in a developing country other than her own.
OWSD is grateful for the generous support it receives for this programme and other activities from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
OWSD is hosted at its headquarters in Trieste, Italy, by TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world. TWAS is the world's foremost academy for scientists from the developing world. Its membership currently consists of almost 1,000 eminent scientists, more than 85 percent of whom live and work in the developing world. TWAS sponsors a large number of research and training programmes for scientists from the developing world.
