What did I learn from the talk by Dr. Walker and Dr. Burton?

Well, let me start with the obvious. The life of a researcher (in this case, the highest level of an academic) is pretty much guaranteed. Most of all, I got the impression that scientists make up 0.1% of the working population that love their work. And the best part yet, scientists get the opportunity to explore the most diverse parts of the world for FREE... Can you imagine that?

I was particularly encouraged by Dr Burton because he purposefully tipped us to follow our passions and be prepared to make life-altering decisions along the way. Dr Burton went to Cambridge University and Lund (Sweden) and now stays in California (USA). Besides all these travelling adventures, another aspect of his life that stood out to me was the way his career diverged from physics and chemistry to immunology and virology. I do not know exactly what led to this specialisation, but one thing that I inferred throughout his speech was that he was hungry for knowledge and he still is (at his age?). He is just living evidence that no one ever stops LEARNING!!

As for Dr Walker, I do not know where to begin. I certainly enjoyed the candid nature of his presentation. And the most important lesson that I learnt from Dr Walker is to: "always to be persistent, you will never know what may happen".

As for the sci-factories in both them - I found the technological biomedical advances very captivating... Knowing that the best biomedical research facility will be built in Africa - a step towards development. I feel that Dr Burton and Dr Walker's project has a higher social impact than foreign aid that is just pumped into poor,  disease-ridden countries. I say this because of the following reasons:

• The research is conducted with by the nation's people for the people - in effect, educating the people.
• When this immunization research produces conclusive results - the vaccines may soon protect people from HIV infection and more and more lives(especially the poor) will be saved. However, competition exists with pharmaceuticals that they may no longer earn excessive profits from the sale of ARVs/drugs because there will be no need for drugs - we will have  vaccines.
• This prevention/immunization research will soon attract the most experienced, renowned and innovative scientists to come to Africa and collaborate with the Africa's elite to come up with solutions for the pandemics that have burdened our continent.

I personally see this as an open window of opportunity for the African countries to learn, share and discover the potential that collaborative efforts possesses. If all goes well, in time, children will no longer have to die from preventable diseases and deadly viruses of our generation will be eternally silenced...

Note: Some of you may have noted that I refer to Africa as if it is a single country because I believe that in these torrid socio-economic conditions we must be unified in order to solve the continent's unnecessary problems.