At the 6^th  MiM – Pan African Malaria Conference in October, Malaria Journal sponsored the prize for the Best Emergent Scientist, which is awarded to the scientist who gave the best oral presentation.

Malaria Journal is pleased to announce the winner of the award is Dr Irene Masanja, a Senior Research Scientist from the Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania. Irene received her PhD in Epidemiology from Basel University before returning to the Ifakara Health Institute to work on health policy analysis and improve health systems in Tanzania. She is currently working on assessing the quality of malaria case management in Tanzania by evaluating the effectiveness and safety of antimalarials in rural areas of the country.

Irene is a strong supporter of open access publishing, with all her recent research being available in this format. Irene has published in Malaria Journal several times in the last two years with each publication having been accessed over 1000 times and cited often, showing the importance and relevance of her work to the global malaria community.

Irene is among the strong young scientists working in Africa who are coming to the forefront and being recognised internationally, as evidenced by the accolades she has received. In 2010, she was recognised as one of the ‘Emerging Voices’ for her work in raising awareness of how health research can push progress towards universal health coverage in low-income countries. In July 2013, she was among the ‘Emerging Leaders’ cohort for the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa. At the MiM conference, Irene received the ‘Brian Sharp Award’ in addition to the Best Emergent Scientist award for the work she presented at the conference.

Irene feels truly honoured by the award and hopes that it will motivate other scientists to excel in their chosen fields of study.