5 women scientists from Global South win award for water quality research

Five researchers have been awarded the 2024 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World opens in new tab/window for innovative research that helps meet the challenge of improved water quality, advancing UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: Water and Sanitation opens in new tab/window — an issue that disproportionately affects women and girls around the world.

Their research explores a wide range of pioneering ways the challenge of water quality can be tackled, from using hydrological modelling to bioremediation with bacteria, and from creating nanocomposites for heavy metal removal to working with communities to develop sustainable practices. The prize also acknowledges the scientists’ commitment to leadership, mentoring and engagement within their communities, including the translation of research into actionable insights for stakeholders.

This year’s winners are:

• Dr Augustina Clara Alexander opens in new tab/window, Lecturer in the College of Engineering and Technology, University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania: Water supply and treatment, hydrological modeling, climate change 

• Dr Tasrina Rabia Choudhury opens in new tab/window, Principal Scientific Officer, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Bangladesh: Environmental restoration, water quality improvement

• Prof Shirani Manel Kumari Widana Gamage opens in new tab/window, Department of Botany, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka: Applied microbiology, plant virology, bioinformatics

• Dr Lidia Antonella Rivera Peñalva opens in new tab/window, Principal Investigator, Coral Reef Alliance, Honduras: Marine biology, fisheries, socioecological systems

• Dr Zubeda Ukundimana opens in new tab/window, Lecturer, Kampala International University, Uganda: Wastewater treatment, sanitation and hygiene

The awards have recognized women-led science from more than 20 low- and middle-income countries since 2013. They are given in partnership by the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD opens in new tab/window) and theElsevier Foundation opens in new tab/window. OWSD fields applications and chairs a panel of distinguished scientists to select the winners, and the Foundation awards a cash prize for each winner of USD $5,000, as well as an all-expenses-paid trip to attend a relevant conference in the awardees’ field to provide them with vital networking opportunities. In 2024, awardees will attend Singapore International Water Week opens in new tab/window. The winners will also have the opportunity to publish their work in STAR Protocols opens in new tab/window, an open access, peer-reviewed journal by Cell Press which offers structured, transparent, accessible and repeatable step-by-step experimental and computational protocols from all areas of life, health, earth and physical sciences.

Past award winners have been invited to meet their country’s presidents and have been celebrated by local, national and international media, while other winners have gone on to receive other prestigious awards and fellowships, including L’Oreal–UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowships, and to hold influential scientific leadership positions, including National Secretary of Science and Technology.

The winners

Augustina Clara Alexander, PhD — University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Dr Augustina Clara Alexander is a civil and water resources engineer from Tanzania. Her research focuses on the areas of water supply and treatment, hydrological modeling, climate change and land-use impact assessment, and water resources evaluation and management. Augustina is part of Unlocking Resilient Benefits from African water resources (RESBEN) opens in new tab/window, a project looking for a holistic understanding of processes and relationships of factors involved in sustainable water resource management and development while focusing on a novel research theory, methodologies and practice.

Tasrina Rabia Choudhury, PhD — Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission

Dr Tasrina Rabia Choudhury is a chemist from Bangladesh with expertise ranging from water quality improvement to environmental restoration, from climate change to risk assessment and environmental modeling, and more. She is working to pioneer novel approaches in the remediation techniques of toxic elements from wastewater and drinking water, ensuring the delivery of safe drinking water to underserved communities. Tasrina has actively engaged with local communities, implementing awareness campaigns that educate them about the importance of hygiene and efficient water use.

Prof Shirani Manel Kumari Widana Gamage, PhD — University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka

Prof Shirani Manel Kumari Widana Gamage is a plant virologist from Sri Lanka. Her main research focus is on various aspects of microbiological applications, including bioremediation of polluted soil and water environments, biofertilization and bioherbicides. She has developed a new platform to monitor cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater with a remote sensing-based model, to monitor and predict the risk of bloom and toxins formation for the first time in the country — supporting local communities at high risk of exposure to cyanotoxin-contaminated water.

Lidia Antonella Rivera Peñalva, PhD — Coral Reef Alliance, Honduras

Dr Rivera is a biologist from Honduras. She has a multidisciplinary research background that ranges from analyzing the management of larval dispersal, to the use of perception research to assess the adaptive capacity of coastal communities. Her Mesoamerican Reef Regional Water Quality Monitoring Program —an initiative across three countries, 90 sites and over 20 institutions — established a unified monitoring protocol and provided invaluable data on key contaminants in principal tourist zones. Currently, Antonella works on generating research to support science-based decision-making in fisheries and water quality.

Zubeda Ukundimana, PhD — Kampala International University, Uganda

Dr Zubeda Ukundimana is a chemical and environmental engineer from Rwanda, working as lecturer and environmental impact assessment consultant in Uganda. Her research has focused on assessing the wetland vulnerability to wastewater and developing treatment processes for abating pollutants concentration to protect receiving water bodies. Currently, Zubeda coordinates the North-South Alliance for Inclusive Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (ALL4WASH) opens in new tab/window — bringing together international partners to confront challenges of water supply and sanitation through mutual cooperation.