Mphatso Edda Chapotera
Malawi 2014
Mphatso Edda Chapotera was inspired to become a scientist by her father, a meteorologist, and her sister, a doctor. “I remember dad looking up at the sky and predicting when and where it would rain,” she recalls. “He was always right, and I was always so impressed. Plus, I thought, if my sister could do all those hard calculations I saw in her chemistry books, then so could I.
Dad used to say that if we were really Africans, we had to learn how to farm, so each of us had to hoe, and received a reward if we had the best crop.
Field of Research
I am happy when I see fish farmers moving from subsistence level to earning an income, enabling them to increase household assets, such as buying bicycles or putting ironsheet roofing on their houses. This encourages other farmers to do the same.

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