Cosmas Mwikirize, a Ugandan scientist has won the 2018-19 Shatkin Scholarship, named after Aaron Shatkin, the founding director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM) in New Jersey.
Shatkin was a professor of molecular genetics, microbiology and immunology, and the founding director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM) at Rutgers University.
Mwikirize received the scholarship together with Ileana Marrero-Berrios.
Cosmas Mwikirize and Ileana are both Ph.D. students in Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University.
According to the university, the duo “will each receive a $3,000 supplement to their stipend as part of the award.”
At Rutgers, Mwikirize is “working on the development of a 3D Ultrasound imaging system for more efficient guidance of percutaneous needle-based procedures such as biopsies, prostate brachytherapy, and radiofrequency ablation.”
Before joining Rutgers University, he was an assistant lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Makerere University.
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He was also the student team leader of the group that developed the first internet laboratories (iLabs) at Makerere University in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He has also worked with programs and organisations like Philips, Africa Fulbright Network, Big Ideas Contest among others.
In 2005, Cosmas Mwikirize emerged as the best science student in Mbarara, scoring 4AAAA in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Math.
At Mbarara High School, where he completed his ‘A’ level from, the New Vision discovered that he had never been topped since he joined senior one.
He went on to study electrical engineering at Makerere University. He is the last born in a family of eight, according to the New Vision.
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