Dr. Etheldrera Nakimuli‐Mpungu, a Senior Lecturer and Psychiatric Epidemiologist at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda is set to receive an Elsevier Foundation Award for Women in Science at a function set to take place on 13 February 2016 in Washington D.C, USA.
Dr. Nakimuli represents the Sub-Saharan Africa Region as one of the five biologists to receive the Award that recognizes early-career researchers from developing countries.
Dr. Nakimuli-Mpungu is to be recognized for her work using psychotherapy as treatment of depression and alcoholism in Ugandans with HIV.
Depression is a serious problem for HIV patients throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, making it more likely that those patients will stop taking their HIV-antiretroviral medications.
Dr. Nakimuli‐Mpungu is working with service providers to integrate depression screening with HIV-treatment, as well as to include local communities in discussions of depression to help destigmatize the illness.
Other winners are Sri Fatmawati, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region, Sushila Maharjan, Central and South Asia Region, Magaly Blas, PhD – Latin America and the Caribbean Region, and Ghanya Naji Mohammed Al-Naqeb, Arab Region.
Recipients were selected by a panel of eminent scientists. The prize includes USD $5,000 and all-expenses-paid attendance at the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting.
The Elsevier Foundation awards are given in partnership with the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the advancement of science in developing countries.
The program rotates annually between disciplines (medical/life sciences, chemistry and physics/math). These year’s women are being honored for their accomplishments in nutrition, psychiatry, biotechnology, women’s health, bioenvironmental sciences and epidemiology.
They are also being celebrated for mentoring young women scientists who are pursuing careers in agriculture, biology and medicine.
