Invitation to TWAS Webinar 5: Medical and Biological Sciences : 14 OCTOBER @ 1pm (Rome time)

[ICTP/infopoint - Emili Sabina]

Distinguished scientists,  Dear colleagues,

On behalf of TWAS President, Prof. Mohamed H. A. Hassan, and of TWAS 
Council, we are pleased to invite you to the fifth webinar of the 2020 
TWAS Awards Webinar Series.

The series has consisted of five webinars taking place online between 
10 June and 14 October, leading to TWAS Fifteenth General Conference, 
which will be also held virtually from 1 to 4 November. The webinars 
focus on the winners of TWAS awards and of awards in honour of 
TWAS Fellows. A question-and-answer session takes place after each 
presentation, allowing participants to ask presenters their questions.

The fifth and last webinar before TWAS  General Conference will take 
place on 14 October, at 1 p.m., Rome time, and will focus on medical and 
biological sciences.

The series will resume next year to comprise presentations by those 
TWAS Awards winners that were not able to convene in 2021.

Presentations will be made by:

- Robert Peter Millar of South Africa, Co-winner of the 2020 TWAS Award 
in Medical Sciences
- Alejandro Fabian Schinder of Argentina, Co-winner of the 2020 TWAS 
Award in Medical Sciences
- Faith Hope Amongin Osier of Kenya, Winner of the 2020 TWAS-Abdool 
Karim Award in Biological Sciences and
- Fathiya Mbarak Khamis of Kenya, Winner of the 2019 TWAS-Abdool Karim 
Award in Biological Sciences.

For more information, biosketches of each scientist can be found at the 
end of this message.

To register in advance, please, use: 
https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QzSuGDyFQ0GHG9Gq9rDdNQ

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with 
information about how to join the webinar.

To join the live event, please, use: https://youtu.be/dQ2RT6Jwb4E

Participants to the webinar provide their consent to be recorded. 
Participants receive a notification when a recording starts or when they 
join a session that is already being recorded. Participants also 
authorize TWAS to use the recording, in part or entirely, when 
disseminating material related to TWAS activities.

We look forward to seeing you online,

Prof. Romain Murenzi
TWAS Executive Director
++++++++++++++++
UNESCO-TWAS
The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the advancement of science in 
developing countries
Trieste, Italy


UNESCO-TWAS is committed to protecting personal data in line with the 
/Principles on the Protection of Personal Data and Privacy for the UN 
System Organizations/ (https://www.unsystem.org/privacy-principles 
<https://www.unsystem.org/privacy-principles>).


BIOSKETCHES

*2020 TWAS Award in Medical Sciences (shared)*

*Robert Peter MILLAR*
Director
Centre for Neuroendocrinology
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South Africa
Robert Peter Millar is the Director of the Centre for Neuroendocrinology 
at the University of Pretoria, in SouthAfrica. He is also a Research 
Fellow at the Universities of Cape Town (SouthAfrica) and Edinburgh, UK, 
and Professor Emeritus at the University of St. Andrews, UK.

Millar was born in South Africa and grew up in Zimbabwe. He received his 
Master of Science from the University of London and his PhD from the 
University of Liverpool, UK. In 1998, he was asked by the University of 
Edinburgh to direct the prestigious UK Medical Research Council’s Human 
Reproductive Sciences Unit, a position that he held until 2011.

He founded a reproductive health company called Ardana Biosciences. In 
2016, he established a Centre for Neuroendocrinology in the Faculty of 
Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Edinburgh and South Africa, and 
a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. He was President of 
the International Neuroendocrine Federation, Editor-in-Chief of the 
journal /Neuroendocrinology,/ and holds the same position for the 
/Journal of Neuroendocrinology/.

/He was awarded "[f]or//his fundamental and translational contributions 
in the field of neuroendocrinology leading to the development of new 
treatments for hormone-dependent diseases"/

************************************

*2020 TWAS Award in Medical Sciences (shared)*

*Alejandro Fabián SCHINDER*
PhD
Laboratory of Neuronal Plasticity
Leloir Institute Foundation
National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET)
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Alejandro Fabián Schinder received his degree in biology at the 
University of Buenos Aires in 1990. Then he moved to San Diego to pursue 
graduate studies in the Department of Biology, University of California. 
He obtained a PhD in 1996 with a thesis on the role of mitochondria in 
excitotoxic neuronal death.

Between 2000 and 2002, he pursued a second postdoctoral training at the 
Salk Institute for Biological Studiesof La Jolla, California, where he 
began studying adult hippocampal neurogenesis and the consequences of 
adding neurons in pre-established neuronal circuits. He provided for the 
first time that new neurons become functionally integrated into the 
adult mammalian hippocampus. In 2002, Schinder returned to Buenos Aires 
and established the Laboratory of Neuronal Plasticity at the Leloir 
Institute Foundation.

He is a recipient of the John Guggenheim Fellowship (2010) and of the 
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander vonHumboldt 
Foundation (2013). For several years, he worked for the Council of the 
Argentinian Society for Neuroscience Research, in Buenos Aires, serving 
as its President from 2011 to 2013. Currently, he is a Principal 
Investigator and the President of the Leloir Institute Foundation, and a 
Superior Investigator at CONICET.

/He was awarded "[f]or////his fundamental contribution to the 
understanding of development, integration and function of newly 
generated neurons in the adult brain"/
////
************************************
***2020 TWAS-Abdool Karim Award in Biological Sciences*

***Faith**Hope **OSIER *
Executive Director, and
Professor
International AIDS VaccineInitiativeHuman Immunology Laboratory
Imperial College London
London, United Kingdom

Faith Hope Osier was trained as a paediatrician in Kenya, then she 
specialized in immunology in Liverpool, and obtained a PhD from the Open 
University, UK. She is currently the Executive Director of the 
International AIDS VaccineInitiative(IAVI) Human Immunology Laboratory 
(HIL) at the Imperial College London, UK. IAVI aims to translate 
scientific discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public 
health solutions. The current project portfolio includes HIV-AIDS, the 
Lassa virus, Ebola, tuberculosis and malaria.

Previously, Osier was the leader of two groups of scientists working on 
the development of the malaria vaccine at the Kenya Medical Research 
Institute (KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme) and the Heidelberg 
University Hospital, in Germany.

Hope's vision is to ‘make malaria history’ through vaccination and to 
ensure that there will be the next generation of scientists that will 
continue to push the boundaries of science. Together with her 
colleagues, she launched the Federation of African Immunological 
SocietiesLegacy Project to train 1,000 African PhD students in 10 years. 
In August 2020, she was listed as one of the 100 most influential 
African women by Avance Media, Africa’s leading media and public 
relations agency.

/She was awarded "[f]or/**/her contribution to understanding the 
mechanisms of acquired immunity against Plasmodium falciparum malaria in 
humans"/

************************************

2019 TWAS-Abdool Karim Award in Biological Sciences

*Fathiya M. KHAMIS *
Research Scientist
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
Nairobi, Kenya

Fathiya M. Khamis is a molecular biologist and a research scientist at 
the Plant Health Theme of theInternational Centre of Insect Physiology 
and Ecology (/icipe/), where she's also involved in the African Fruit 
Fly Programme. Hermain interest is the exploitation of molecular tools 
to develop integrated pest management (IPM) strategies to manage native 
and invasive pests, including the development of biopesticides.She 
obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology in 2009 from Kenyatta University, in 
Kahawa, Nairobi County, Kenya.

The focus of Khamis's investigations is the notorious fruit fly pest 
/Bactrocera dorsalis/, which causes enormous damage to the African 
horticultural industry. She used the DNA barcoding technique to 
demonstrate that the pest called /Bactrocera invadens/ is closely 
related to the well-known and widely distributed /B. dorsalis/. This 
finding contributed to a major taxonomic revision that led to the 
understanding that /B. invadens/ and /B. dorsalis /are the same species.

Khamis is also passionate about building research capacity in Africa. 
With the recent global interest in insects as food, feed and other uses, 
Khamis has been taking an active role in using her molecular biology 
skills to assess microbial safety of edible insects and their rearing 
substrates.

/She//was awarded "[f]or/**/her //exemplary contributions in molecular 
biology and population genetics for sustainable pest management for food 
security in Africa"/