Posted on by Mbuyi Shadrack

Ecotoxicology: What are they talking about?

Postgraduate studies, in essence, involves an important choice regarding the field of study you want to follow. Unlike undergraduate studies, you might find yourself Postgraduate studiesfollowing your postgraduate research field for the rest of your life!  It thus becomes important to follow your passion or to find love in what you do. This month I just felt it was worth highlighting the field of study that I am in and why I find joy in what I do.

I work in ecotoxicology. And like MANY people before me, I had no idea that such a field existed, let alone that I can make a difference in the world, in such an interesting way. I think a lot of researchers don’t start out knowing what they’ll do one day. Many of us start our undergraduate years with some vague (and wrong) ideas about our future, until we meet someone or learn something that suddenly changes our world. It was somewhere in a third-year ecotoxicology course, during the practical, when I saw the theory come alive that I decided that this is something I could do. In that practical, we had to expose earthworms to Cadmium and assess endpoints such as mortality, fecundity as well as any changes in their metabolic activity. The “aha” moment for me was when I started analysing the data and interpreting the results to conclude on the effects of this chemical.

An ecotoxicologist's job is to move our world from right to left, as depicted.
An ecotoxicologist’s job is to move our world from right to left, as depicted.

Ecotoxicology focuses on the effects of contaminants, mostly of anthropogenic sources, on the different ecosystems. These range from terrestrial systems to aquatic and marine systems. The main goal however, in any of these systems, is to figure out how we negatively impact these systems and how we can be able to reverse, in part or completely, these effects for the benefit of the environment and all that benefit from it. Having had a dream to work in spaces that directly benefit humanity, I couldn’t have asked for a better field of study. My passion in particular is aquatic toxicology which focuses on how these contaminants or environmental pollutants affect the water quality, aquatic systems and those who benefit from these systems. You could say, how we are affected by our own doings; be it deliberate or not.

One of the closest related fields that I am currently also working with is chemistry. There is no way that one can assess for pollution and various contaminants in the environment without knowing what those contaminants are and how they break down in the environment and what their specific effects are. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical companies discharge a lot of pharmaceutical waste into the environment and the assessment of such contamination directly links the pharmacy field and the ecotoxicology work. Needless to say, the work of an ecotoxicologist expands beyond just the research labs and university classrooms. It comprises many risk assessment arm of many chemical, biochemistry and environmental consulting industries to name but a few.

Ecotoxicology crosses disciplines
Ecotoxicology crosses many disciplines

With the forever increasing population and changing environment, I think the work of an ecotoxicologist not only ends with the current generation but opens doors to new research that is focused on ensuring that we have clean water, living aquatic systems and a safe environment for more than just our generation.

As I have often highlighted in my previous blogs, there are different stresses that come with research. At times it becomes very stressful to a point of breaking down. Supervisors and deadlines can often be daunting too. However, doing what you love and what makes you want to do more makes the challenges bearable. Most scientists would agree that passion is what drives us through the hard times. When you go out there and can already see what needs to be done in your field to address a particular problem, that is what I call doing the science that matters!

Posted on by mamothena

About that funding…

I have been thinking a lot about funding for the next year of my PhD. It will be Year Four. Almost universally, it seems that PhD programs only fund you for about ¾ of the time you actually need to complete your studies.  Is the idea that you get a job towards the end? Or that you hurry up and finish?  If you go online my story is not unique; this is a common experience for many PhD students. This happens in South Africa, the rest of the continent, and even abroad. Discussion forums abound with PhD students offering each other encouragement and tips on how to survive/ where to get funding. It would almost be charming if it wasn’t so serious.

My lack of future funding feels like an individual failure – but it really is part of a larger societal problem. Postgraduate funding in South Africa is quite inadequate for a country that wants to pull up its socks. Not enough people are funded, and the lucky ones are not funded sufficiently. The issue of funding is not just about making life easy for a PhD student, as important as that peace of mind is. For South Africa in particular, there is a “need to bring a fresh outlook to the country’s development hurdles by training up postgraduate students who have been raised in disadvantaged communities and deeply understand the kinds of problems we need to overcome as a nation”. These are some of the thoughts of UCT vice chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng on the issue of postgraduate funding in the country.

To widen our lens a bit, we live on a continent that is 16% of the world population but only produces 1% of its research output. Wait, that’s less than 1%.  Lack of political will to invest in research and development (R&D) on the continent is one of the main factors leading to these dire statistics. South Africa is cited as only one of a few countries who have fulfilled the African Union pledge to spend 1% of their budget on R&D.

Where does this leave us? International funding and collaboration. There is nothing wrong with international partnerships. But as Dr Alan Christoffels of the University of the Western Cape writes, “the dependence on international collaboration and investment without any pan-African framework for increasing and sustaining local funding, limits Africa’s ability to drive a scientific agenda that is aligned to its specific needs”.

Long story short is that my problems with funding are the problems of every PhD student in South Africa and on the continent. The option is to accept it as the nature of the beast. Or we can look beyond the surface and examine the root causes, and advocate for better performance by our governments and even the private sector. As a society we need to care about our knowledge economy and home-grown solutions.  While we wait, and as we toil through fieldwork and data analysis (on our way to an even more uncertain researcher career),  we will nurse in our minds the nagging question whether it was/is all really worth it.