Celebrating those who stand up for science against the odds: interview with 2022 Maddox Prize Winner Eucharia Nwaichi

Abstract

The 2022 John Maddox Prize was awarded to Nigerian biochemist Dr Eucharia Nwaichi for her work engaging communities in conflict to address pollution in the oil fields of the Niger Delta with research. She has been able to resolve a dispute between local communities and an oil company on the effects of liquid waste on fish stocks in Rivers State, diffusing a conflict that threatened to escalate into violence. Eucharia persevered and succeeded despite the intense and often dangerous levels of conflict, and personal risk to herself, from representatives of a different oil company whose officials confiscated her recordings and data.