Tebello Nyokong, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Nanotechnology at Rhodes University, is one of 10 candidates being considered for the 2011 L'Oréal-Unesco Regional Fellowships for Women in Science in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nyokong, born in Lesotho on October 20, 1951, has racked up several achievements since joining the professional ranks.
Tebello Nyokong, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Nanotechnology at Rhodes University, is one of 10 candidates being considered for the 2011 L'Oréal-Unesco Regional Fellowships for Women in Science in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nyokong, born in Lesotho on October 20, 1951, has racked up several achievements since joining the professional ranks.
She holds a Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation chair in medicinal chemistry and nanotechnology at Rhodes University. Nyokong is also the director of the DST/NRF Nanotechnology Innovation Centre for Sensors, also at Rhodes.
In 2009 she won the Africa-Arab State L'Oréal-Unesco Award for Women in Science, as a Laureate, for her pioneering research in photodynamic therapy. This aims to harness light for cancer therapy and cleaning up the environment. She is the third South African scientist to receive this award.
In the same year, she was named the 2009/2010 Celebrating Excellence in Organisation, Most Influential Woman in Business and Government – Education and Training Sector; she was awarded the NRF President's Award for Champion of Transformation in Research.
Last year, Nyokong was awarded honorary doctorates from Walter Sisulu University and the University of South Africa, and was inducted into the Lesotho Hall of Fame.
Her research deals with the development of Pthalocyanines as photosensitisers for photodynamic therapy, a cancer treatment that uses a combination of a dye, laser light and oxygen. It combines pthalocyanines with nanoparticles, such as quantum dots, for imaging, and magnetic fluid, for heat treatment of cancer.
In high school Nyokong chose arts subjects, but two years before matric she switched to the sciences.
In 1972, she received her Cambridge Overseas School Certificate and five years later, she obtained a B.Sc degree from the University of Lesotho, and a certificate in education.
She completed an M.Sc. degree in Chemistry at McMaster University, in Canada, in 1981, and a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at The University of Western Ontario in 1987.
This, she says, was the time of one of her biggest challenges – juggling motherhood and doctoral studies.
She describes this as a phase of "academic loneliness".
"I work very hard and do not give up easily, even when things are tough. I tend to take setbacks in my life as a way of working even harder, Nyokong told Grocott's Mail.
"I would wake up at 4am, make sure my two children were sorted out and hit the books.
"I found this whole balancing act quite challenging," Nyokong said. "I am glad I never gave in and took a break from my studies, because once a person takes a break, it is difficult to come back.
"Women in science live a very lonely life. No one can really understand you and, mostly, there's no one to mentor you. As a woman," she said.
From 1987 to 1991, Tebello Nyokong returned to her home country, serving as a Senior Lecturer in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Lesotho. In 1991, she accepted a position at Rhodes University in South Africa as a lecturer, and in 2001, was made Professor.
One of the goals of the Unesco award is to provide girls and young women with the kinds of role models Nyokong felt the lack of in her early career.
“The L’Oréal Corporate Foundation is committed to creating a place for women in the traditionally male-dominated sciences, and assisting these women to progress in science," said Celeste Tema, L’Oréal South Africa corporate communications manager responsible for the regional fellowship programme, in a press statement.
"The fellowship programme also increases the representation of women in global scientific circles, creating role models for future female generations.”
The women Fellows will be announced at a ceremony in Johannesburg, on June 30.
Although she has spent considerable time abroad, Nyokong is adamant she is here to stay and aims at helping make Africa a continent to be envied.
"I am proudly African. I will never leave Africa, no matter how much money is offered to me," Nyokong said. "I am tired of all the negative attention we always get.
"Our continent has made a conscious decision to produce cutting-edge science, and we need to stick to it. It is the comments from international communities that have made me strong and who I am today," she said.
