Hulda Swai

Hulda Shaidi Swai (born in 1954) is a Tanzanian researcher and professor in life sciences and bioengineering. She is a pioneer in nanomedicine research in the development of drugs against infectious diseases in Africa. Her work focuses in particular on the use of nanotechnology in antimalarial drugs.

Early life and education

Swai was born in 1954 in the village of Vudee in the Same District, Kilimanjaro. She attended secondary schools in the 1970s, and graduated in 1980 from the University of Dar es Salaam with degrees in chemistry and statistics.

In 1985, Swai was awarded a Master of Science in chemical engineering from the Queen Mary University of London. She earned her PhD in biomaterials from the same university in 2000.

From 2001 to 2014, she was a researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa. She heads the Department of Science and Technology / Pan-African Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Applied Nanomedicine.

In 2015, she returned to Tanzania She also sits on several other international expert committees, such as TB Global Alliance, ISHReCA, UNECA, Erasmus Mundus Nanofar, and the editorial board of the Journal of Nanomedicine. in nanotechnology in relation to biomedical health and sustainable agriculture.

Swai is the 2020 recipient of the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Award for Scientific Excellence for her work on the use of nanotechnology to study antimalarial drugs.