Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi Quotes

Being responsible is more important than fighting. It's more enduring.

I stayed to work in Niger Delta, because my mission is to make my country great.

In joint grant application preparation, many investigators think women should not be the Principal Investigators, citing society-assigned roles to women to manage welfare issues and not be a chief planner. Non-flexible work schedules and non-gender-friendly management policies have also not helped the female scientist.

If you don't engage with people properly, you run the risk of being kidnapped. First I meet the community chief, the women's leader, the youth leaders.

Follow your dream. Your passion will sustain you through the thick and thin of science and do not forget to deliberately have mentors and champions. These individuals will always fan your flame into fire.

I have a peaceful home and I am known in my field of phytoremediation and in community engagement.

From pilot studies, we have reached 75% to 80% of heavy metals removal and this biological process can be repeated several times over until desired results are achieved.

The environment needs to be protected. The degradation has gone beyond what you can sweep under the carpet. I discovered the indigenes are part of the pollution. They tap into the pipeline and do illegal, artisanal refining, but without the technical know-how.

The power of science is that people can prove that this wasn't done based on bias or someone's personal interests.

Some professional colleagues have shoved aside some of my position papers because they come from a ‘women’. We, as women scientists, often get a ‘second-citizen role’ in science events, activities, and jobs. When people push for a quota for a woman among invited speakers for example, I feel terrible as it is a conscious bias.

We also learn from them. They have planting techniques that we don't know - they teach us how to make the solution work in their area.

I was a curious child of educated parents who thought I was a scientist in the making. They sent me to a specialised Science High School and my interest grew stronger and here I am today.

We are not here for battle. We just want people to be responsible.

We want solutions that are green and based on nature. We aim to do no harm in everything we do.

People get excited and feel like scientists, because they're working with us researchers to fix the problem.