As Africa concludes the global sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Cameroon’s inorganic chemist Tchakouté Kouamo has won the 2018 TWAS-Atta-ur-Rahman Award.

The scientist who is a researcher and a lecturer at the University of Cameroon was honoured for creating an eco-friendly cement for use in any construction.

In his acceptance speech, Tchakouté Kouamo said he was grateful and honoured to receive the prestigious award and promised to be productive citing that it would be his source of motivation in his career.

The award is granted annually by 1985's TWAS Fellow Atta-ur-Rahman, a distinguished Pakistani chemist and a past president of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. It acknowledges the work of researchers from scientifically lagging countries who have obtained high-impact results in various fields of chemistry.

The scientist is a lecturer, a researcher and also an alumnus of the university and has taken his time to develop geopolymer cement using waste material such as discarded glass, rice husks ash and sugarcane remnants.

According to TWAS website, his research was made possible in part by a TWAS Research Grant in December 2016, he used the grant to purchase a compressive strength machine, which applies force to the hardened cement to gauge the force until it breaks, as well as an oven to dry ingredient samples.

Photo Credits by Google

Story Compiled by Carolyne Nyokabi

The article; https://twas.org/article/tchakoute-kouamo-wins-twas-atta-ur-rahman-award