Mentor-mentee
Young women scientists’ workshop
An international workshop on “Mentor- Mentee” program was organized by Bangladesh Academy of Sciences on 24-25 March 2012 at NMST Auditorium, Agargaon, Dhaka. The theme of the workshop was Challenges of Young Women Scientists in New and Emerging Sciences.
A group of 50 young women scientists (age less than 40 years) were selected from various public and private universities and research organizations from all over the country to be “Mentee”.
The “Mentors” were renowned scientists from home and abroad. The delegates from abroad included Prof. Farida Habib Shah, TWAS fellow, from Malaysia; Prof. Sunethra Atukorala from Sri sLanka ; Prof. Nilam Shrestha and Dr. Sanju Shrestha from Nepal. Prof. Dr. Hazera Mahtab of BIRDEM, Prof. Sultana Shafee, Prof. Z N Tahmida Begum, Prof. Dr. Fauzia Moslem, Prof. Haseena Khan, Prof. Shahida Rafique and Prof. Zeba Islam Seraj were among the mentors along with the foreign delegates and the coordinator. Prof. Shamima K Choudhury of Dhaka University was the proposer and coordinator of the workshop.
The Honble State Minister for Science and Technology, architect Yafes Osman was the Chief Guest in the inaugural session of this workshop and Prof. M Shamsher Ali presided over the function.
The main aim of this workshop was to develop a sustained relationship between experienced women scientists who give advice as mentors to less-experienced young women scientists i.e. mentees. There were panel discussions in themes such as Successes and barriers for women scientists in pursuing scientific dreams and Public communication for women in science. The panellists stressed the role of media in promoting science to the public as the number of science graduates are alarmingly dropping in last couple years as compared to business studies.
Farida Habib Shah, Vice-President of Organization of Women in Science in Developing World (OWSD) stressed that mentor-mentee workshop can be a role model for other developing countries also us.
Report was provided by Shamima K Choudhury, Professor, Department of Physics, University of Dhaka.
-With The Daily Star input
