ZIMBABWE-BORN United Kingdom-based scientist Alice Matimba says she feels like a global citizen because of the places her profession has taken her to and the people she gets to work with.
Matimba (AM) spoke about her career and life in the diapora when she appeared on the platform In Conversation with Trevor hosted by Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN).
Below are excerpts from the interview.
TN: Greetings, Welcome to In Conversation with Trevor UK series brought to you by the Nyaradzo Group.
Today, I’m in conversation with Dr Alice Matimba, the head of training and global capacity at Wellcome Connecting Science.
Dr Alice Matimba, welcome to In Conversation with Trevor.
AM: Thank you.
TN: Your CV, I told you, just intimidated me.
- ‘I had five jobs, but still struggled’
- Nyaradzo boss: We have demystified death
- Alice Matimba: I feel like a global citizen
Keep Reading
It floored me. The stuff that you’ve done is absolutely amazing.
But let me start by asking you, what have been the most transformative seasons in your life?
AM: I was born in Zimbabwe, raised in Zimbabwe, went to school in Zimbabwe, and some of the transformative times have been in, I guess, my high school years, when I decided that I was going to become a scientist.
I was interested in science. I was interested in understanding biology and so forth.
And so when I had to look for a degree, for example, you know, in sixth form, you are asked to decide on what you want to do.
And I was actually interested in medicine. But I was also interested in other scientific areas like chemistry and so forth.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get into medicine. But I did continue to work in science and biology, that’s related to health and medicine.
The other transformative time was when I moved to Europe to do my postgraduate studies.
That was the first time I’d been outside the continent.
Obviously, I travelled around to surrounding countries in Zimbabwe, but that was the first time that I went to Europe.
And that started my journey for over 10 years where I was in pursuit of my career, lived in different countries and travelled to different places. And that really, really shaped my knowledge of the world as I see it today.
I also had some moments when I finished my PhD and I moved to the United States.
While I was there, I decided that I wanted to return to Zimbabwe.
And that was really a transformative time because I felt I needed to be at home with other people and contribute to development, scientific development in the country.
Over time, I decided to come back to Europe.
I decided at some point that I wasn’t going to leave home, but I did. But I realised that I’m not stuck in one place.
I consider myself a global citizen because I have lived in different countries. I have worked with so many people.
And, over time, living in different places, experiencing different cultures, learning from some of the best people in the world has really shaped me into this person that does not feel that I am in Zimbabwe or in the UK.
I feel like I am a global citizen. And so that’s, I guess that’s why I am here today.
TN: Talk to me about what it is like being a successful global citizen, talented, but with your home as it is with your country where it comes from as it is, in terms of the area that you specialise in medicine, science, biology, genomics.
What’s and where’s your headspace like when you think I’m a global citizen, I’ve been able to do this, but this is what my country looks like?
AM: That’s an interesting question. I would say I have a lot of people that contributed to my career as I was growing up.
In fact, starting from my family, my father, I also had some really inspiring people that I worked with in my university years.
It was almost like an opening to the world for me because they had had that experience to work with people in science.
In fact, science is a global profession.
And so for a lot of people that work in science, they get to travel, they get to work with people all over the world.
And so to me, that was inspiring.
When I was in that position during my final year of my undergraduate studies at the University of Zimbabwe, my supervisor for my project made science sound really interesting because of the work that they were doing, which involved working with global scientists.
So I saw that as an avenue that I was interested in following. I jumped on it and I got into the programme and I've never looked back ever since.
TN: What does it feel like?
AM: Well, it’s exciting. I can tell you that no day is the same for me. The work I do is very exciting.
I’ve been, particularly in the role that I’m in now, I’ve been here for seven years.
Most of my work now is working with scientists. So I’m no longer really doing research. I used to do research. I used to also teach in the university.
But I decided to take a role that allows me to impact scientists and also to impact those scientists in a way that they can translate their knowledge and skills and science into healthcare, for example, and public health.
So my work is really focusing on training scientists, training professionals, people that have graduated, that are looking for very short training in how to incorporate genomic sciences into their work.
Our work has been really inspired by the genomics field, which has, which I can explain if you would like.
TN: Please explain it. What do you do on an everyday basis? And what is genomics?
AM: I’ll start with what is genomics. So almost 20 years ago, the human genome was sequenced, and this basically means, just to make it simple, simplify it, scientists all over the world, not just scientists, big organisations, governments came together to decipher or to try and understand or read every single piece of information that is in our genome.
Our genome is what is translated, information that is translated to who we are and what we are, including everything to how we look and also how our bodies respond to chemicals and diseases, for example.
So that point, which was 2001, the institute, where I’m based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, it is where the human genome was sequenced together with other institutions, but they played a leading role in deciphering the human genome.
So coming back again to what I do, I work at Wellcome Connecting Science, which is a part of the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
So Wellcome Sanger Institute is where the genome was sequenced.
Wellcome Trust is the body that funds the work that we do.
So the Wellcome Trust was founded in 1936 by Sir Henry Wellcome.
He’s got an endowment of 30 billion pounds.
