September 3rd at the University of Cape Town (UCT) marked the culmination of my extensive training in genomics with the award of a PhD degree in Human Genetics. This achievement built upon comprehensive Bioinformatics training toward an MSc degree at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya, which, in turn, was founded on a solid Biochemistry background from the University of Buea in Cameroon.

This was a true Pan-African effort, supported by funding from DELGEME in Mali for Bioinformatics training and malaria research at JKUAT, funding from H3ABioNet in South Africa to further expand my Bioinformatics expertise at UCT, and funding from the Sickle Cell Disease in Africa (SickleInAfrica) Data Coordinating Center (SADaCC) in South Africa to study Human Genetics and conduct sickle cell disease genomics research at UCT. Throughout this journey, I benefited from the expertise and mentorship of outstanding researchers, with sponsorship for short courses in Mali (DELGEME), the UK (Wellcome Connecting Science Learning and Training), Kenya (OpenScienceKE), South Africa (SADaCC, H3ABioNet), and Nigeria (WACCBIP UG). I also had the opportunity to present my work at multiple conferences across Africa, thanks to funding from DELGEME, DELTAS-Africa, SADaCC, H3Africa Consortium, H3ABioNet, the African Development Bank Group, and others.

I continue to benefit from the success of African grant schemes through a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship from WACCBIP UG in Ghana, which will enable me to pursue research on sickle cell disease and malaria—two diseases that continue to plague Africa and whose age-old co-evolution has fascinated me since my undergraduate studies in Biochemistry.

In loving memory of my mother, Monica Beteh Kang, the strongest person I have ever known, who passed away at the start of my PhD program.