Perseverance and Passion for Science and Development

This year’s CGIAR Crawford Fund lecturer was Dr Zohra Ben Lakhdar, director of the Laboratory of Atomic-Molecular Spectroscopy and Applications at Tunis El Manar University in Tunisia, and winner of the prestigious L'OREAL-UNESCO "Women in Science" Award for 2005.

She is proof positive that with the power of perseverance and commitment to science both the individual and the nation can prosper.

The Crawford Lecture commemorates the work of Sir John Crawford, a founding father of the CGIAR who, like this year’s lecturer, believed fervently in the importance of science for development. The lecture is presented at each AGM and sponsored by the Australian government.

Dr Lakhdar’s presentation was on The Dimension of Science and Technology for Development: Perspective from the Maghreb.

“We need to develop a scientific culture in Africa,” she said in an interview after her presentation with Cathy Reade from Australia’s Crawford Fund – a national support organization for international agricultural research, named after Sir John.

While her address discussed the importance of science and research for the development of North Africa, her own story is of personal and ultimately her country’s development through her passion for science.

Dr. Ben Lakhdar was able to get to the senior position she holds nationally and internationally from very humble beginnings as a girl in a poor Moslem family of 10 children, in a country with limited education options and no research capacity.

It was her family’s support and encouragement and the belief of both her uneducated parents that knowledge ‘has first place’, that made it possible for her to develop her own career and to go on to work for her country’s research capacity.

In explaining the significance of her family’s encouragement and belief in education, she commented that her parents even supported her request to go to a boys’ school for her final year of school because it was the best school in the subjects for which she held a passion: maths, science and physics - subjects she believes have the power to “change the thinking of people”.

A fellowship saw her study physics in France and although asked to stay on, she returned to Tunisia as one of few people with PhDs and dedicated herself to build a research capacity in her homeland.

One of the ideas raised in her Crawford Lecture related to encouraging retired senior scientists to visit less developed countries and encourage students and help to supervise young scientists to pursue science and research. She has tried this in her own labs, asking French and German scientists to come to Tunisia for a few weeks or months to help supervise students and researchers and to further develop a ‘culture of science’.

Ben Lakhdar believes that young students today in Tunisia and other developing countries face much the same problems that she faced years ago.

“Many developing countries need to nurture a scientific environment to encourage students. And we need cooperation, exchange programs and an International Centre for Physics - in Optics and Photonics - as in ICTP in Trieste in Italy where very bright students can meet very high level scientits, get training, develop research; there their enthusiasm is not stifled due to a lack of resources,” she said.

Her advice to young people in developing countries wanting to pursue science in the face of limited encouragement and resources is “Persevere, work hard, do very good work and always compare yourself to the best.”

Thanks to Dr. Lakhdar’s own hard work and perseverance and her passion for science, there is a research capacity in Tunisia now.