Kuopio Again – South African Scientist Meet and Greet

I returned back to Kuopio just before Halloween. I am here for the second, and last leg, of my Fulbright grant. I’ll be teaching once again at the University of Eastern Finland )UEF) in their Master’s degree program in toxicology. I’ll also be providing a two-day continuing education course for Nordic toxicologists. The next two weeks will be hectic as I complete my teaching responsibilities and prepare the last of the lectures for the CE course. My hopes to have all the course materials completed before arriving in Kuopio were dashed so I am scrambling to catch up.  I also have a manuscript with several UEF colleagues that we’re finalizing this month.

This past week has been spent adjusting back to life here in Finland. My internal clock remains off and I’ve lost sleep because of it. The School of Pharmacy hosted two visitors from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in South Africa.

Dr. Baatile Komane is the Head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Komane has an interest in traditional medicine and the role of botanicals in healing. Dr. Komane also has an interest in products derived from the Marula tree which is one of the more important tree nut oil producing plants in southern Africa. Dr. David Katerere is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Science at TUT with a broad set of interests including mycotoxins. He is also the Research Platform Chair of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Advancement in Africa at TUT and co-directs the CSIR / TUT Cannabis Research Centre. He helped develop the nutraceutical, Niselo, a probiotic beverage made from white sorghum. We shared several dinners with Baatile and David along with several other UEF colleagues. Dr. Komane also shared her abilities in one of the South African click languages. It makes Finnish seem easy to learn in comparison! One of our dinners was held at a local restaurant, Sampo, which serves butter-fried vendace. This is a local specialty. Vendace is local freshwater whitefish. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Baatile and David and comparing notes on US, Finnish, and South African culture.

I also had the chance to meet Dr. Anna-Mari Kok, a postdoctoral scientist from the University of Pretoria. Dr. Kok also has an interest in natural products and has spent the past month working with Dr. Risto Juvonen a fellow toxicologist here at UEF.

It’s been a busy week!