Mahmoud Maina

Maina is originally from Nguru, Yobe State, Nigeria.[2] He attended Federal Government College Buni Yadi in Yobe State for his Secondary School.[3] He completed his Bachelor of Science in Human Anatomy at the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, in 2007.[4] After working at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Maiduguri and Gombe State University, he moved to the UK in 2011 to pursue a Master of Science in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Sussex.[5] He went on to do a PhD at Sussex University in the lab of Louise Serpell, for which he received the Chancellor’s International Research Scholarship.[6] His PhD research was focussed on the role of nuclear Tau in Alzheimer’s disease.[7][8][9] He completed his PhD in 2017 and is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sussex.[7] He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2018.[10]

Growing up in Nigeria, Maina said he was inspired by his father's science book to become a scientist. However, there was a high level of misconceptions about science and lack of visible science role models in his community, which hinders many young people from developing interest in science disciplines.[11] As a result Maina founded the outreach program for TReND in Africa,[10] an organisation that aims to improve scientific development in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example by organising workshops on open hardware and neuroscience,[12] and science fairs for students and teachers.[13] He also started the Science Communication Hub in Nigeria, ,[14] a platform that aims to connect scientists from Nigeria and increase the visibility of Nigerian and African scientists.[15] He has published about neuroscience research in Nigeria[4][16] and in Africa's 54 countries,[17] as part of his ongoing work to enhance neuroscience research in Africa.

In 2019 Maina started the African Science Literacy Network, a project aimed at training scientists and journalist in effectively communicating research.[18] In September 2019 Maina organised a workshop which launched the project.[19][18]

For his outreach work, he has received the Royal Society of Biology Science Communication Award in 2017[1] and the Young African Scientists in Europe award for the Champion of Science Storytelling Challenge.[20][21][22] In December 2018, he was nominated for The Future Awards Africa Prize for Young Person of the Year 2018,[14] both for his research in degenerative diseases and for his outreach work. In 2019, he was awarded the New England BioLabs Passion in Science Humanitarian Duty Award [23] and Kroto Public Engagement Award by Sussex's School of Life Sciences.[24]

• Mahmoud Maina on Twitter