Year 2017 - Vol. 29 - No.4 NEWSLETTER A PUBLICATION OF THE WORLD ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Scaling the heights of science TWAS honours global innovation leaders PUBLISHED WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE KUWAIT FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCES Advance your career. Advance global science. With a TWAS fellowship, you can earn a PhD or do postgraduate research at top universities in the developing world. Learn more at www.twas.org/opportunities/fellowships CONTENTS 4 2 Editorial: At TWAS, a commitment to excellence The Academy understands that to advance science, it must honour excellence. 3 In the News The Himalayan glaciers are receding at an alarming rate. 4 Unearthing the Andes' complex history Argentine scientist and TWAS Fellow Victor Alberto Ramos wins the 2017 TWAS-Lenovo Science Prize for work on the ancient mountain range. 6 HIV: Better knowledge, better care Epidemiologist Barbara Burmen changes HIV and tubercolosis management and wins the 2017 TWAS-Abdool Karim Prize. 8 Protecting wildlife for the common good Ugandan veterinary scientist Caroline Asiimwe protects chimpanzees and wins the 2017 TWAS-Samira Omar Prize. 8 10 Research for a war-torn country TWAS-Al-Kharafi Prize winner Fathiah Zakham of Yemen seeks effective (top) Victor Alberto Ramos tubercolosis tests. (first left), 2017 TWAS-Lenovo Science prize winner, during 12 Testing herbal traditions with science outdoors research in Nepal; TWAS-C.N.R. Rao Prize winner Kalulu Taba of the Democratic Republic of Congo (below) Ugandan veterinarian Caroline Asiimwe educating confirmed that some plants have uses in water purification and medicine. students on wildlife conservation. 14 Seeking cures in Cameroon's plants Cover picture: The icy Andes peak of Cerro Torre, on the border Chemist Rémy Bertrand Teponno wins the TWAS-Atta-ur-Rahman Prize. of Chile and Argentina. (Photo: Alex Proimos, Sydney, Australia) 16 How people strategize, together Economist Arunava Sen of India wins the TWAS-Siwei Cheng Prize for his work on the collective, strategic behaviour Cameroonian chemist Rémy 18 Women honoured with OWSD-Elsevier Awards Bertrand Teponno, winner of the 2017 TWAS-Atta-ur-Rahman Prize. The 2017 prize went to early-career researchers from Bangladesh, Ecuador, Ghana, Indonesia and Sudan. 20 TWAS Prize winners 14 A full list of those honoured in the last two years the prize was awarded. 22 Murenzi returns as TWAS executive director After 14 months at UNESCO, the former executive director returns to the Academy. 23 People, Places and Events TWAS Newsletter, Vol. 29 No. 4, 2017 1 EDITORIAL AT TWAS, A COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE WAS is well-known globally for the elected to the Academy in 2014. In 2017 he Topportunities it provides to scientists in served as vice president of the Academy of the developing world: PhD and postdoctoral Sciences of Uzbekistan, and at year’s end was fellowships, research grants and scientific appointed to lead the country’s new Ministry of exchange programmes. But there is another Innovative Development. TWAS initiative that must not be overlooked: Ethiopian Segenet Kelemu won the TWAS Prize a regime of prizes and awards that recognizes in agricultural sciences in 2011 for her discovery excellence in science, often in countries not of beneficial endophytic fungi and bacteria in well-known for research accomplishments. tropical forage grass. In 2013, she was named It has long been central to the Academy’s director general of the International Centre of philosophy: honouring excellence is a powerful Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, and in way to encourage the advance of science. In this 2015 elected to TWAS. Kelemu today is known issue of the TWAS Newsletter, we profile some as one of the most influential women in African scientists who recently have won our honours. science. TWAS President Clearly, the impact of their work does not Linxiu Zhang, a Chinese social scientist, Bai Chunli end when they claim the prize. Arguably, it’s conducted powerful research into the causes just beginning: The scientist returns home to of poverty in rural regions; in 2013, she won the her university, or to his research centre. Their TWAS Celso Furtado Prize in Social Sciences, and success is recognised, and this raises their was elected to TWAS the next year. In early 2018, visibility, and their credibility. They may find she was named director of the UN Environment- new research opportunities at home, or new International Ecosystem Management opportunities to work with international partners. Partnership. Often they take on a mantle of leadership. We also play an essential role in identifying From 1985 through the end of 2017, TWAS has excellent young scientists. Since 2013, we have bestowed 1,140 prizes and awards to scientists awarded more than 150 TWAS Prizes for young at every level, from early-career researchers to scientists in developing countries. And we have senior colleagues. supported the annual awards for early-career Today, the annual TWAS-Lenovo Prize is a women scientists organised by The Elsevier symbol of our commitment to excellence. With Foundation and the Organization for Women in the generous support of Lenovo, the global Science for the Developing World (OWSD). leader in the field of hardware for business At TWAS, we constantly work to discover and and personal computing, it has become one encourage top talent. This is where you, too, can of the most elite honours given to scientists in play a direct role: If you know an accomplished developing and emerging countries. scientist, please nominate him or her for The Lenovo winners have come from Latin one of our prizes and awards. It may seem a America, Asia and Africa, and they are typically modest act, but it may prove to be an important scientists at the peak of their careers. But TWAS contribution to scientific progress. also honours top mid-career scientists – and we see how the prizes contribute to scientific Bai Chunli, president, TWAS advancement. Ibrokhim Abdurakhmonov, a specialist in cotton genomics and breeding, won the 2010 TWAS Prize in agricultural sciences, then was 2 TWAS Newsletter, Vol. 29 No. 4, 2017 WORLD NEWS TWAS NEWSLETTER Published quarterly by The World Academy he was a citizen and the head of a company of Sciences for the that has seen how close this metropolis of advancement of science IN THE NEWS in developing countries 21 millions had come to a breakdown. with support from The Guardian: the Kuwait Foundation http://bit.do/SaoPaoloWater for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). ICTP Campus Himalayan glaciers are receding faster Strada Costiera 11 While the residents of Komik, the world’s highest 34151 Trieste, Italy tel: +39 040 2240327 village in the Himalayas, understand little about fax: +39 040 224559 climate science, they are now trying to realign e-mail: [email protected] website: www.twas.org their lives around a new reality—less and less snow, receding glaciers and an arid landscape. TWAS COUNCIL Several studies suggest that the Himalayan President Bai Chunli range is among the most sensitive regions to Immediate Past President climate change. The Chocho Khanyilda glacier, Jacob Palis the lone water source to Komik, has been Vice Presidents shrinking over the past 15 years. In the past five Moctar Toure Mohammed Hamdan years, rainfall in the Lahaul and Spiti district South Africa faces hunger and obesity Rabia Hussain has been so erratic that it indicates an average Khatijah M. Yusoff crises Manuel Limonta-Vidal decline of over 50% in annual rainfall. Many South Africans are going hungry. At the Secretary-General Down to Earth: same time obesity rates are rising. This is Ajay K. Sood http://bit.do/ThinIce unsurprising – both are forms of malnutrition Treasurer Samira Omar Asem and tend to go together. The coexistence of Council Members poverty and obesity is a global phenomenon. Robin Crewe Africa, Mideast push animal health In 2014, over 10 million South African, 19.7% Abdel Nasser Tawfik Habib Firouzabadi research of the country’s population, reported having Bishal Nath Upreti Animal experts have prioritised areas for animal inadequate food access. Factors such as Mahabir Prashad Gupta research in Africa and the Middle East as part of accessibility, affordability, and quality of Ex-officio Council Member Fernando Quevedo a global strategy to reduce the burden of animal available food are part of the reason why over diseases. The experts at a conference in Nigeria 3 million South Africans people (6.5%) reported TWAS Executive Director Mohamed Hassan (interim) prioritised opportunities for African countries to they had severely inadequate food access. Editor collaborate with their counterparts in the Middle The Conversation: Edward W. Lempinen East on research and funding opportunities. http://bit.do/HungerObesity Assistant editors Francesca Pettoello The priorities include access to samples or Cristina Serra strains of organisms, specialised facilities and Sean Treacy expertise, and identification of international Nanoscientists make more colors Design & Art Direction Rado Jagodic funding opportunities. printable Studio Link, Trieste, Italy SciDev.Net: Scientists from Singapore have found a way Printing http://bit.do/AnimalHealth to expand the printable color spectrum with Grafica Goriziana Gorizia, Italy a novel nanostructure system. Their research, published in Nano Letters, expands the range Unless otherwise indicated, the text is written by Deforestation is starving São Paulo of printable colors by 121%. The current color the editors and may be of water range for computers and printers is based reproduced freely with due credit to the source. São Paulo could face more devastating water on the standard Red Green Blue color space, shortages if farmers continue to clear the developed in 1996 by Microsoft and Hewlett- Printed on Fedrigoni Amazon forest, warns the utility chief who Packard. But the hues in this system only Arcoprint 1 E.W., a paper made with environment- recently steered the biggest city in the Americas encompass a subset of colours that the eye can friendly ECF pure cellulose, from the edge of drought catastrophe.