Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi

"When people push for a quota for a woman among invited speakers for example, I feel terrible as it is a conscious bias. 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."

"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 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."

"Evidence has shown that women have the capacity to excel in any field of research provided they have adequate training, enabling environment, and interest."

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

"Increase the intensity of advocacy for gender equality in our society. Develop the confidence of mid-career and advanced women scientists to be mentors, as younger female scientists are more motivated when accomplished women scientists serve as mentors, speakers, and leaders in their field."

"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."

"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."

"It feels good. I was always first position in the class for maths and physics. It made me stand out. My father encouraged me, always made me feel like a superstar. I went to as high school specialised in science. I got to love the profession of scientist. I did industrial training (in Nigeria, students have a period of hands on industrial training) with a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and experienced hands on environmental monitoring."

"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."

"How did you become involved in scientific research?"

"Crude oil has many components. In the soil, it leaves high concentration of heavy metals, which are inorganic and cannot be degraded by micro-organisms. The current practice by polluters is to use excavations, but that is only shifting the goal post. The goal is to reduce the contaminants to the barest minimum. Polluted land can become viable for agriculture again. I will study a similar process in Poland."

"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."

"Science is the bedrock of development. The way we live is a biological process. Young girls should be interested in science. Man can crack it; woman can crack it! We have to work hard for what we believe in."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"Mother nature called on me to be a steward."

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

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