Picturn (from left to right), Justin Hounkpevi, Tchibalo Parobali, Dzifa AhiatrogahCredit
In April 2018, during the second year of a post -PhD fellowship at New York University, his colleagues presented a summary of the American Association for Orthopedic and Mineral Research (ASBMR), which was holding its annual meeting in September in Montreal, Canada.
As a citizen in Togo with limited experience in international conference travel, I saw the opportunity to attend this three -day meeting as an important opportunity for job development, allowing me to share scientific discoveries, learn from others and obtain updates about emerging technologies.
But unlike my colleagues from Europe, and although we all have similar professional titles and a migration in the United States, I needed a Canadian visa to attend. This is because the documents requirements were more strive for the citizens of African countries compared to applicants elsewhere.
A private company has set the visa services to the Canadian government, and six weeks before the conference, it took a half -day vacation to attend an appointment and paid to 185 dollars (then the equivalent of about $ 140 USD) to secure a passport. A month later, I got a second date, during which I received a passport and visa. Delay means that registration, hotel reservations and aviation have increased the price.
How can African scientists return to their home continent?
Since most of the international meetings that welcomes scientists from all over the world are held in the United States and Europe, scientists their headquarters outside these regions can find the audience in particular, and they often require – as it was for me – the most famous paper works to prepare.
This is especially the case for PhD students in Africa who have not traveled abroad to work.
With this in mind, and I reported my own experience, I had a partnership with Mohamed Cisse, a mathematician and computer world based in Guinea, to launch a guidance and guidance program. (Muhammad and I have already worked together to establish the Union of Scholars in the African Diaspora (ADSF), a network of scholars who have developed their career outside the continent.)
We dealt with the American Association of Cell Biology (ASCB) in 2023 with the aim of helping a multidisciplinary group of students attend the biological cell meeting for the next year, a joint annual event with European Molecular Biology.
We wanted to create the ADSF-ESCB Fellowship that would enable PhD in Africa to present their research personally at a four-day CV meeting in San Diego, California, in December 2024.
Job job resources for African scientists
We launched an invitation of fellowship requests in May and received more than 50 requests in one month, and they chose four applicants for the experimental program.
They were Chilapalo Barubali, Biosyman at Lumi University in Togo; The world of poultry, Justin Hunkopy, is also based; Dzifa Ahiatrogah, a vital medical scientist at Kwame Nkrumah University for Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana; GERARD Quarco, a water microbiologist at the Tamali Water Research Institute, Ghana.
In June, we sent invitation messages and all paper works for visa applications. Then it took about four months before the applicants obtained the visa dates at the American embassies in their countries.
Unfortunately, Gerard did not succeed. But by mid -November, we managed to purchase the aircraft tickets for the other three. Since the travel was in the following month, it was a back and forth back ticket of $ 1200, as was the case if it was purchased months ago. Fellowship also covered hotel fees, airport transportation – Hotel and ACSB membership for 2025.
Intimate friendship
To create a climate of intimate friendship before the expression, the three colleagues traveled together from Accra to the American West Coast, a two -day trip with stations in Europe and the US East Coast. I was in contact throughout their trips and met them before the stickers sessions to provide advice, between preparing the conference and attending the sessions.
I loved the practical aspects of their sciences, which I classify as applied biology. Tchilabalo, for example, is used as a new nutritional formula to increase poultry mass, which has societal benefits.
Listening to the three students reminded me of the importance of a psychological question about the translation side in my basic research, as I use pre -clinical mouse models to determine the molecular mechanisms that improve the health and lives of people with sickle cells and kidney cells.
I met students every day for breakfast and lunch, using time to review their plans for this day and advise if necessary. We also took some evening walking together, and colleagues attended a reception with other scientists.