Researcher of the month: April


Award ‘encourages me to keep researching in


Guatemala’! Central American woman is this publication’s first ‘Researcher of the Month’


Susana Arrechea (pictured) is one of five researchers who are winners of the 2020 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World for their research in engineering, innovation and technology. The winning scholars from Bangladesh,


Guatemala, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Yemen were recognised for their diverse accomplishments in engineering, innovation and technology. The prize also acknowledges the


scientists’ commitment to leading and mentoring young scientists, and to improving lives and livelihoods in their communities and regions. Arrechea’s research is focused on the


potential industrial and environmental applications of materials such as nanoparticles, nanotubes, and graphene, which can be employed in creating more sustainable building materials, in water treatment, and in solar devices and other renewable energy solutions. In addition to contributing to the development of nanotechnology in Guatemala, she is also involved in improving solar electrification, connectivity, and digital and STEM literacy in schools in rural Guatemala, in partnership with New Sun Road and Microsoft.


She said: ‘Winning the OWSD-Elsevier


Foundation Award means showing to my baby daughter and to other young Guatemalans that scientific research can be done and recognised worldwide regardless of gender, origin of birth, or where you grew up. This award encourages me to keep doing research in Guatemala. Arrechea received her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the


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University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC), and worked there as a professor of physical chemistry before pursuing her master’s degree and doctorate in nanoscience and nanotechnology at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. After graduating Cum Laude, she worked as a visiting researcher at the University of California-Berkeley as part of a Fulbright Nexus project on renewable energy, and later at the Center for Biotechnology Studies of the University of Valle de Guatemala. ‘Recognition and visibility are important aspects of a scientific career,’ said OWSD President Jennifer Thomson. ‘OWSD is proud and happy to be


able to give these inspiring women scientists the recognition they deserve: for their outstanding science, their commitment to building a better world and their persistence in often challenging circumstances. ‘Over the past seven years, OWSD and


the Elsevier Foundation have celebrated a breathtaking array of innovative research coming from high achieving women scientists working in some of the most


“Scientific research can be done and recognised worldwide regardless of gender, origin of birth, or where you grew up”


resource constrained circumstances. Our 2020 winners continue to address crucial UN Sustainable Development Goals with inspiring results. ‘From preserving river ecosystems, to tapping nanotechnology for innovative environmental interventions, designing rapid, early stage turbuculosis diagnostics, and training the next generation of computer programmers,’ added Thomson. The other winning researchers are:


• Champika Ellawalla Kankanamge of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, in environmental engineering;


• Chao Mbogo of Kenya Methodist University, in computer science;


• Samia Subrina of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, in electronic engineering and nanotechnology; and


• Fathiah Zakham of Hodeidah University in Yemen, in bioengineering and microbiology.


First awarded in 2013, the awards are given in partnership by OWSD and the Elsevier Foundation. OWSD chairs a panel of distinguished scientists to select the winners, and the Elsevier Foundation supports a prize for each winner of USD $5,000 and an all-expenses- paid trip to attend the annual AAAS Meeting (American Association for the Advancement of Science) in Seattle in February.


This is the first in a regular Researcher of the Month column and we are looking for nominations for future months – people who are carrying out particularly interesting research, or sharing their research in a particularly interesting way. Please send your suggestions to tim.gillett@europascience.com


April/May 2020 Research Information


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