Pacific Woman Wins This Year’s Biennial Zonta Science Award
The Zonta Club of Wellington has awarded this year’s Biennial Zonta Science Award to a Pacific woman.
Dr Helen Woolner, a Cook Island Mori chemical scientist from Porirua, is the first Pacific recipient of the award which acknowledges emerging female scientists who have graduated with a PhD in the past seven years.
The Zonta Science Award comprises of a cash grant, air travel, a commemorative medal and a certificate of achievement.
Upon completing her PhD in natural products chemistry, Dr Woolner was awarded a three-year New Zealand Research Council Pacific Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2018.
Dr Woolner said she was excited about winning the Zonta award as it will enable her to travel overseas to visit the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany.
“There I will collaborate with Professor Deniz Tasdemir, the Head of the Marine Natural Products Research Unit,” she said.
She has been undertaking research in the Chemical Genetics laboratory at Victoria University of Wellington. Her research aims to improve our understanding of a traditional Samoan anti-inflammatory medicinal plant.
“I am investigating the plant’s potential in the treatment of human diseases such as obesity, cancer, Alzheimer’s and tuberculosis.
“I am also hoping to look at traditional medicines of the Cook Islands and traditional medicine use by Maori, as well as explore other traditional medicines in Samoa,” she said.
As Dr Woolner reflects on her journey, she said she remembered as a child watching her grandmother using plants to treat different illnesses with family members.
“I didn’t understand what my nana was doing at the time. It was not until I got to university and started taking some biology papers that I learnt about secondary metabolite.
“I was amazed with the connection I made with what my grandmother was doing and natural products.”
Dr Woolner, who is to finish her fellowship next year, was surprised to learn she was the first Pacific woman to win this award. She said there was still a low number of Pacific men and women in the field.