Prestigious award for former Humboldt Fellow and research alumna of our university
Dr Nowsheen Goonoo, former Humboldt Fellow and research alumna of the University of Siegen, has been awarded the Rising Star Africa Prize by the renowned Royal Society Academy of Science.
Around 20 percent of the population in Mauritius suffer from diabetes, and the situation is similar in many other African countries. The disease is often accompanied by foot ulcers and wounds that heal very slowly. Although there are medicines and wound dressings, they are not affordable for a large part of the population. So why not make low-cost wound dressings using a sustainable resource that is abundant on the Indian Ocean island’s beaches: Seaweed. This is exactly what Dr Nowsheen Goonoo from the University of Mauritius is working on.
The award is also a success for the University of Siegen, in some respects the award winning research had its origins on the Haardter Berg. In 2016, Dr Nowsheen Goonoo was undertook a research visit to Siegen in order to be part of Prof. Dr Holger Schönherr’s Physical Chemistry I working group at the Research Center for Micro- and Nanochemistry and Bio(Technology) (Cµ) for one year as a Humboldt Fellow. By coming to Siegen, Dr. Goonoo was able to have access to laboratory equipment, including microscopes, which were not available in Mauritius at the time. She continued her work after leaving Siegen with great success.
If you would like to read more about Dr. Goonoo’s recent success, you can read more here (in German): https://www.uni-siegen.de/start/news/forschungsnews/952083.html
You can also read our interview with Dr. Goonoo and Prof. Schönherr here: https://www.uni-siegen.de/alumni/netzwerk/forscheralumni/tandem/news/nowsheen_goonoo.html