This is Dr Lynthia Paul, a microbiologist and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Cape Town - a long way from the little girl in the tiny copper mining town of Nababeep in the remote Namakwaland who dreamed of being a nurse!
Lynthia was a star of National Science Week 2008 - on the Friday she spoke about following your science dream to the students from many high schools who assembled at the Cape Academy of Science for the official launch; on the Tuesday she spoke to Cobus Bester, the presenter of the morning Afrikaans current affairs programme Monitor on Radio Sonder Grense, on Thursday she participated in a talk show on the women's programme Otherwise on English-language SAfm radio with presenter Nancy Richards and guests Tsungai Jongwe (who herself spoke to students from Milnerton and Thandokhulu high schools on Friday) and our own chemical engineer Fikiswa Majola.
And on Thursday evening, Lynthia was in the audience at the Ericsson auditorium at the MTN Sciencentre with some friends to watch and listen as renowned sports scientist Tim Noakes demolished the long-lasting urban legend about lactic acid pooling in athletes' muscles and causing fatigue. (It's the brain, dummies, that makes the difference!)
Thanks to Lynthia for being such a good role model and talking about how she really battled to adapt to her first year at Stellenbosch University - both socially and academically - and how once she discovered science, she never, ever regretted it.
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