Glory 'came much too early'

In some ways, Dr Patience Mthunzi, who last year was awarded the Presidential Order of Mapungubwe, wishes she had not received it.

It's not that the 36-year-old scientist working at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is ungrateful. It's just that she feels that the award might have been a bit premature.

"To be honest, I wished it away because I think it came prematurely . I have not invented anything yet, so I am not yet at the level to have been awarded such an honour."

Mthunzi, who was awarded the bronze rank of the order, was last week also named as one of three South Africans on Forbes magazine's list of the 20 Youngest Power Women of Africa.

The other two - radio talkshow host Redi Thladi and Yolanda Sangweni, a senior editor at Essence.com, a leading publications for black women in the US, both work in the media.

Mthunzi, who is pioneering in South Africa the study of biophotonics - a combination of biology and photonics, the latter involving the generation, manipulation and detection of photons - has achieved several firsts.

It was the knowledge of being the "first Zulu physicist" at St Andrews University, in Scotland, where she did her PhD, that kept her pushing through during tough times.

"When I got to St Andrews the principal visited my supervisor's labs because he wanted to meet this girl from Soweto . and he looked at me and said: 'Do you know that you are our first Zulu physicist?' and that made me sure that I was going to get through my PhD".

Just as with the presidential award, Mthunzi was surprised when she learned that she had made it onto the Forbes list, along with people such as Leymah Gbowee, a peace and women's rights activist from Liberia, Cina Lawson, the minister of posts and telecommunications of Togo, Juliana Rotich, co-founder of Ushahidi, a Nairobi company that specialises in developing free and open-source software, and Maud Chifamba, an accounting student who, at 14, became the youngest university student in Zimbabwe.

"I didn't even know what the Forbes list thing was," she said.

But it was her awarding of the Order of Mapungubwe that first put her in the limelight.

"When I was contacted by this woman from The Presidency, I put the phone down in her ear, because I thought it was a hoax. I mean, who gets calls from The Presidency and they ask for a copy of your ID and your CV and stuff?"

Mthunzi's groundbreaking work could well change the lives of millions of people around the world.

It could contribute to doctors being able to cure diseases such as cancer and HIV. It also has applications in agriculture, and the environmental and life sciences.

Her work, she says, is far from finished, and might have to be completed by "another Dr Mthunzi when I'm old and grey".

MTHUNZI & CO COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE

PATIENCE is currently working on the optical sorting of cells so that cancer cells can be removed with lasers from the vicinity of healthy cells, the isolation of cells with lasers, and the optical transaction of mammalian cells, in which DNA is introduced into cells by the use of lasers.

Mthunzi and scientists around the world are studying ways of introducing DNA into stem cells by using laser beams, and techniques for treating diseases such as cancer and HIV by isolating sick cells and removing them with laser beams.

"Laser" is an acronym of "light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation". - Schalk Mouton