Of passion, support, and pacing up the science ladder

Isabella Oyier sits at her desk at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Program. [Isabella Oyier]

Four times during this interview, Prof Isabella Oyier mentions ‘passion’ as a key driving force in her education and scientific career. But even before she says it, you can actually hear it in her tone, or read it in her disarming smile which never seems to leave her face. The other word she probably repeats quite as much is ‘support’, and for good reason.

It took both of these, the former an intrinsic value she has nurtured since childhood, to climb up her career ladder, first being appointed as the Head of the Biosciences Department at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) and Professor of Molecular Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, eventually becoming the Deputy Director (Kilifi) of the KWTRP in May this year. She is happy to credit people who held her hand on her way up.