TWAS-Fayzah M. Al-Kharafi Award

TWAS is inviting nominations for the 2025 Award from all its members as well as science academies, national research councils, universities and scientific institutions in developing and developed countries.

Self nominations (i.e. applications) WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Eligibility:

Nominations for the 2025 award are invited in Medical Sciences.

Nominees must be female scientists national of a ST-lagging country and have been living and working there for at least two years immediately prior to their nomination.

For a list of the ST-lagging countries, please visit: https://twas.org/66-st-lagging-countries.

The deadline for receiving nominations is 14 March 2025, however we strongly recommend that you do not wait until the deadline but submit the nomination as early as you can to enable us to process it as quickly as possible.

Before starting compiling the nomination, PLEASE PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE MAXIMUM CHARACTERS ALLOWED.

A nomination is considered complete only if includes all of the following information/material:

• Nominator contact details;
• Nominee contact details (self nominations and nominations from jury members are not accepted) and general information on the nominee, including the country where she has been working and living in the past 2 years;
• Authorization from the nominee (i.e. the candidate) to process her personal data for the purposes of her nomination, in conformity to Art. 13 of the Italian Legislative Decree 196/2003. This authorization can only be submitted through the online platform. The privacy authorization form is available for download in the section ‘nominee’s personal data’. The form must be filled in and signed by the candidate and then uploaded onto the on-line platform;
• Suggested citation (15-20 words highlighting the nominee's scientific achievements in Medical Sciences;
• Supporting statement regarding the nominee’s contribution in Medical Sciences. Supporting statements should explain in detail the work performed by the candidate and its significance in the relevant scientific context. Clear reference should be made to the scientific impact of the nominee's work. Vague supporting statements will not be considered and will negatively affect the evaluation;
• Clear and detailed account of any time spent abroad by the nominee in the past two years;
• PhD: information on subject area, year and awarding institution;
• Brief information on membership in academies and societies;
• Brief information on awards and honours received;
• List of 10 most significant publications listed in an internationally acceptable format;
• The nominee's brief CV;
• The nominee's complete list of publications are also to be uploaded, separately, onto the online platform.
• The nominee's h-index in Google Scholar, and its associated number of citations.

PLEASE CHECK IF ENTERED DATA ARE VALID

In particular:

1) While filling in the form, pay attention to the requirements for each field (e.g. maximum number of characters, file type, date format, etc.)

2) Run a check using the button of the form menu to verify that mandatory fields have been filled in and the data you entered are accepted. This also saves your form.
Every time you run a check, you are taken to the last section of the form named "Submit". Use the form menu to navigate to the previous sections.

3) After you run a check, fields with NOT ACCEPTED OR MISSING DATA will be highlighted in RED.
Please note that once you have duly modified the content of one or more fields, the red highlight will not disappear until you run again a check.

For quick tips, please click on: http://onlineforms.twas.org/documents/Applicants_tutorial.pdf

Previous winners of the TWAS-Fayzah M. Al-Kharafi Award.

2024 – Samia Subrina of Bangladesh, for her groundbreaking research in nanoscale materials and devices, providing innovative solutions for electronic industry, heat management, and energy harvesting.

2023 – Nyovani Janet Madise of Malawi, for her pioneering research in Kenya on the lack of access to health care by the poor living in slums, leading to the construction of maternity facilities.

2022 – Sayera BANU of Bangladesh and Nadia HAIDER of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Sayera BANU is recognized for her ground-breaking research on tuberculosis and its effective translation into policies and practices. 

Nadia HAIDER is recognized for her remarkable contribution to the field of DNA barcoding of plants and the whole genome sequencing of date palms.

2021 – Huda Omer Salem Basaleem of Yemen, for her distinguished work in cancer control strategies and in enhancing child health locally and regionally.

2020 – Meththika Suharshini Vithanage of Sri Lanka, for her scholarly output on waste biomass conversion, environmental monitoring and remediation.

2019 – Antonethe Castaneda Mena of Guatemala, for her work bringing together Latin American communities to plan for a future of renewable energy and sustainable development.

2018 – Lydie-Stella Koutika from Congo Rep. for her research in afforestation for improving soil N, C status and P availability of savannas in central Africa.

2017 – Fathiah Zakham, Yemen.

2016 – Marian Nkansah, Ghana.

* Note: During the TWAS Council meeting held in Hangzhou, China, on 11 November 2019, the request by UNESCO to change the term 'prize' to 'award' for all existing and new TWAS distinctions other than medals was approved and therefore this award scheme is now called 'TWAS-Fayzah M. Al-Kharafi Award'.