"I usually wake up with the baby between 4 and 5 a.m. I feed her and I try to sneak in a ½ hour nap before I have to get up. I get ready to go to the hospital by around 7 a.m. I either go directly to the operating room or I see patients in the office. Some days I get called in to Fox to talk about a breaking news story or study."

"I’ve learned to take time to enjoy the small moments in life. The little smiles or gurgles from my baby, Olivia, can make my entire day. It’s important to find those kinds of moments at work, in your marriage or with your friends. It’s all about the small things in life."

"Girls should not believe that science training at university is a male domain."

"Africa needs more scientists, and especially women scientists."

"I think it’s no secret that the decision makers in STI are predominantly male, and that is not to say there are no capable women. Of course, the capable women are a lot less few, because of a problem that starts with the access to education and opportunity that is skewed toward the male child, especially in my part of the world."

"To never stop learning, and to never stop seeking the next challenge. My aspirations are to be CEO of my own business empire; I have an idea box that I need to act upon!"

"Many of the challenges had to do with doubt cast on my abilities to lead, sometimes self-doubt, but also doubt by other parties. I overcame that through self-belief and determination, demonstration of what I can do in all my assignments from the most trivial to strategic. I made a choice that whatever I chose to do will be excellent."

"I find myself now quite comfortable in my own skin, with nothing to prove to anyone but myself. Support of family, colleagues, male and female, can of course not be underestimated! I have had mentors who have supported me along the way as well."

"This recognition is in line with the collaboration value in our CSIR EPIC values and is testament to how we live up to these values."

"It is an honour for me to be recognised as one of the 50 most influential people navigating disruption in the ‘collaborators’ category."

"I think the world is poorer for not giving a chance to the girl child. I think that skewed system then carves out the research agenda in a manner that could have benefited immensely from having women at the top, given our role in society."

"It's important for us as scientific researchers to engage in some dialogue with the people and Government to help create understanding of biotechnology issues and allay fears."

"With the right investment, Africa could get real benefits from growing the latest GM crops."

"Feeding the Planet by Leveling the Plowing Field for Women."

"We are not in the business of farming for pests but for food and nutrition.Insects and viruses can be eliminated by low tech biotechnology. This country must invest in that GM technology."

"There is so much value in having well-meaning mentors and you being receptive and responsive to such interventions."

"All career women struggle with responding to their reproductive needs, and societal pressure to settle down"

"Your achievements have inspired passion among the scientific community for life changing research onto problems that are facing the African continent, especially the smallholder farmer."

"Well I knew I couldn’t give up. I held this strong conviction, and still do, on so many levels, that my life must have been saved for a reason all those years ago. I also knew that my desire to create change in the world was inextricably linked to the dreams and the hopes that I had for my own family, community and continent. So I knew that I had to be part of the solution in trying to create a better world and make a difference to the lives of others. And so I persevered against all odds."

"Nyamayaro holds a noble goal for the future of humanity: to end gender inequality for good."

"Elizabeth Nyamayaro, an advocate for women’s rights and economic development, is the driving force behind the HeForShe campaign, a UN Women’s initiative and global solidarity movement that seeks to engage men as advocates for gender equality. Nyamayaro grew up in rural Zimbabwe where she met a UNICEF aid worker who altered the course of her life – she has since become the senior advisor to the Executive Director of UN Women, worked at the forefront of Africa’s development agenda for more than a decade, worked with UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank, and founded Africa IQ, a social impact organization promoting Africa’s sustainable economic growth and development."

"Time and again Elizabeth has proven her unique ability to focus public attention and trigger stakeholder action for the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Corinne Woods, UNWFP Director of Communications, Advocacy and Marketing. “WFP is honored to add her voice and experience to our own, amplifying the plight of the 690 million people around the world who don’t know where their next meal is coming from."

"“Our potential should not be limited by where we are born, nor our dreams be diminished by our current circumstances.”"

"I am because we are, and because we are, you are.”"

"I believe that our potential should not be limited by where we are born or our dreams diminished by our circumstances. This is the world I am working to create through my work with the United Nations, which hopefully, in turn, inspires other young girls to dream bigger. My mission is…To uplift others."

"As the lights of the city glittered around me, I took a deep breath, thought of my gogo (grandmother) and my mother and all the powerful Africans I knew and know, and reminded myself: I am a girl from Africa."

"That night my activism found a new target: to bring to the world a new understanding of the modern African continent — its youthful potential; its beauty, and most of all, the powerful African philosophy of ubuntu, which sheds light on what it means to be human, and how we can better treat each other for the betterment of us all."

"There are a lot of things it’s hard to do by yourself. Play tennis, for example. Or ride a tandem bike. Or end gender inequality. “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go strong, go together."

"My decision to work at the UN was driven by my need to uplift the lives of others the way I had been uplifted. When I moved to the UK, the images of Africa I saw on television did not align with my lived experience. I was galvanised to combat these entrenched misperceptions of the place where I was born and raised, the place I am proud to claim as my continent of origin."

"I am only alive because of a simple bowl of porridge from the United Nations that saved my life when I came close to dying from hunger as a child – so the Zero Hunger agenda is truly personal to me, hunger remains the leading cause of death in the world, and I am determined to play my part in ensuring that we reach every child and family in need -- especially on my own continent of Africa."