Editorial
Seven Tips for Aspiring Biomedical Scientists in a Developing Country
Denis Zofou*Biotechnology Unit, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63 Buea, South West Region of Cameroon, Cameroon
- Corresponding Author:
- Denis Zofou
Biotechnology Unit, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63 Buea
South West Region of Cameroon, Cameroon
Tel: +237-7718-3510
E-mail: zofden@yahoo.com
Received date: October 12, 2012; Accepted date: October 16, 2012; Published date: October 18, 2012
Citation: Zofou D (2012) Seven Tips for Aspiring Biomedical Scientists in a Developing Country. J Biotechnol Biomater 2:e114. doi:10.4172/2155-952X.1000e114
Copyright: © 2012 Zofou D, This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Low-income countries are generally characterized by a disproportionately large share of the global burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. One would reasonably expect that the solutions to these problems be home-grown. Unaccountably, the capacity for this is wholly lacking, an overwhelming majority of African countries fall well below the average on standard indices of science and technology capacity [1]. Besides this, over the years, these countries have witnessed a steady drain of qualified staff, which has led to low scientific research output, weak preparation of the next generation of biomedical scientists, and at some extent, doubt about the capacity of African universities and research institutions to produce globally competitive graduates [2,3]. Therefore, becoming a productive and successful biomedical research scientist in a low-income country is a real challenge, but first of all, is a matter of devotion. In addition to having the commonly required traits a good scientist should have like a strong academic background, curiosity, team work ability, honesty, discipline, integrative knowledge of related fields, ability to accept and give criticism; young scientists at the end of their academic training need to understand, both the advantages and challenges of their society and working environment for the good of their communities, and for their one interest as aspiring professional scientists. This prompted us to design the following ten tips, which addresses in priority for those working in the field of biomedical research and development.