On February 25, 2025, Seeding Labs hosted an exclusive webinar, “Stories from the Lab: Three African Women Scientists on Building Capacity and Becoming a Leader.” Moderated by Dr. Kala Subramanian, Seeding Labs Board Member and Operating Partner at Flagship Pioneering, the hour-long event featured three women detailing their career paths in science in developing countries.
Panelists included Drs. Ibok Oduro (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Ghana), Rana M.I. Morsy (Assiut University, Egypt), and Mama Sy (Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal), all of whom shared the unique pathways that women scientists take when rising the ranks in academic departments.
Career Journeys
Both Oduro and Morsy spoke of their early interests that moved them towards science. For Prof. Oduro, it was an early love for cooking in the home. She says she “moved her laboratory from the kitchen to the science lab,” building a career in food science and local crop production. For Dr. Morsy, science was a pathway to understand “why” things worked.
One important foundational piece for all of these women was to have a system of support around them, whether that came by way of family, department colleagues, or discipline-specific professional organizations, like Women in STEM. Dr. Morsy cited her experience with a personal support system while earning her PhD in Organic Chemistry.
Morsy said, “What supported me through my journey mainly was my family. My husband took a sabbatical leave and moved to Michigan to support me and take care of our young kid.”
Overcoming Obstacles
“Sometimes the journeys are not smooth. We encounter obstacles and challenges,” noted Subramanian. “And I would say they are inevitable for all of us as we progress through our career journey.”
The theme was taken up by all three panelists, who spoke about the particular obstacles that scientists in developing countries face at every stage of their careers. From revitalizing a program that saw massive enrollment declines to procuring equipment suitable for teaching and research, all three women have worked to overcome the barriers they faced so far in their careers.
“The lack of equipment, the outdated equipment and facilities, and the struggle to publish when you have limited resources” were major barriers, said Sy. “That challenge helped me to grow and forced me to find resources to be able to train my students.”
The right resources
In the end, “Stories from the Lab” brought together three women scientists from across Africa, building new connections in a growing network of support.
Moderator Kala Subramanian summed up the benefits of these new connections, stating, “We all know no one succeeds alone. We need a group of the right resources around us, and support to make a difference in science. In anything for that matter.”
Did you miss the webinar? Want to relive it? Head to the Seeding Labs YouTube channel to view the complete program.
