In an exciting development, Dr Kolisa Sinyanya, the visionary Founder and Director of Ulwazi Scientific Communications and STEM Research, recently had the honour of being invited to give a virtual public speaking seminar in Dominica. This invitation was extended by Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) to host their inaugural fellows who were preparing for their…

Completing my PhD has enabled me to pursue my passions and turn them into a fulfilling career. One of those passions is research, which has led to exciting opportunities. Throughout my PhD journey, I received numerous requests from fellow researchers seeking assistance with various aspects of their projects, allowing me to share my expertise and…

Upon being chosen as a Black In Marine Science Tidal Wave Program inaugural fellow, one of my tasks and privileges was to attend this year’s United Nations Ocean Decade Conference in Spain, Barcelona. Initially, the plan was to speak about my PhD research (submitted in 2023), but that did not go according to plan and,…

For several years, I have been getting informal requests to start a podcast or channel. One person said she needed to listen to me speaking or watch me on her screen talking about anything. As long as I am the one speaking on the other side of the audio or screen. Of course, I laughed…

By Kolisa Yola Sinyanya, Ph.D. candidate , Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, member of Black in Marine Science Member This year, the ICB blog and BIMS, Black in Marine Science, will continue to our collaboration by monthly highlight scientists from the BIMS organization. We hope this collaboration will further foster connecting a phenomenal network…

We are so excited about our brand new project! Ocean Explorers has been in the cards for a number of years now. But we could not execute it before our founder submitted her PhD in Oceanography! Ocean Explorers is an initiative that was developed to address the ongoing demand for career guidance and science communication…

Being part of the inaugural cohort at Ocean Womxn brought me closer to other black women and women of colour in my field of research. It additionally opened up a new world of opportunities for me in a range of fields within ocean sciences and externally. My brand became larger than life! Of course, as…

Two years ago, my PhD advisor asked me to mentor one of her 3rd year students. This is one of my responsibilities as an Ocean Womxn fellow. I had a Zoom session with the student and in that first meeting, she became so emotional from being reminded that she is brilliant, that she is not…

The year is 2019 and big things are happening! For me, this is the year of grabbing opportunities by the neck and using them to my advantage. It is a year of further growth! I’m a believer in fortune cookie messages and one fortune cookie completely re-enforced my thinking and how I approach life. The…

Science communication has bitten me like a bug and I love the effects! Through science communication, we as scientists get the precious opportunity to tell our science-related stories to the public. This sharing of scientific research and discoveries with non- experts in our different fields of expertise can be in the form of science exhibitions,…