I recently had the opportunity to reflect on female leadership, and at the time, I wrote the following about prof Este whom I called prof M.
Nowadays, prof M is an elderly lady and one can say - workwise- she made it in her research career. She contributed greatly to some of the largest epidemiological studies in South Africa, established research centres, published extensively and sat on various high-profile WHO steering committees.
In my field, everybody knows about prof M, but I was blessed to get to know her during my post-doc years. At the time, she had already been retired for 6 or 7 years but was still actively involved in research. We were doing a large breast cancer study at Baragwanath hospital and had to drive through from Potchefstroom to administer certain questionnaires. Everybody knows that by the time you are a professor, you train other people to do the questionnaires - its often seen as low-level work and you have more important things to do. But for three-four years prof M drove with me on Thursdays and Fridays, to administer questionnaires and to collect data. She always told me, 'Christine - it is important to know what is going on in your data!' (I still think we have the best dietary data that have ever been collected:)
At the time, she had already been carrying a heavy burden of some of the side effects of her treatment, but not once did I ever hear prof Este complain.
I absolutely cherished these drives and the discussions that followed. I have the utmost respect for the humble way in which she engaged with all people and will forever be thankful for the time I could spend with her.
I recently had the opportunity to reflect on female leadership, and at the time, I wrote the following about prof Este whom I called prof M.
Nowadays, prof M is an elderly lady and one can say - workwise- she made it in her research career. She contributed greatly to some of the largest epidemiological studies in South Africa, established research centres, published extensively and sat on various high-profile WHO steering committees.
In my field, everybody knows about prof M, but I was blessed to get to know her during my post-doc years. At the time, she had already been retired for 6 or 7 years but was still actively involved in research. We were doing a large breast cancer study at Baragwanath hospital and had to drive through from Potchefstroom to administer certain questionnaires. Everybody knows that by the time you are a professor, you train other people to do the questionnaires - its often seen as low-level work and you have more important things to do. But for three-four years prof M drove with me on Thursdays and Fridays, to administer questionnaires and to collect data. She always told me, 'Christine - it is important to know what is going on in your data!' (I still think we have the best dietary data that have ever been collected:)
At the time, she had already been carrying a heavy burden of some of the side effects of her treatment, but not once did I ever hear prof Este complain.
I absolutely cherished these drives and the discussions that followed. I have the utmost respect for the humble way in which she engaged with all people and will forever be thankful for the time I could spend with her.
