KLU student receives Uebersee-Club scholarship
KLU student Fatema Poonawala has received this year’s Uebersee-Club scholarship, which chiefly covers travel for research purposes. Hamburg’s renowned Uebersee-Club awarded a total of 9 scholarships to young researchers as part of the 72nd Overseas Day at Hamburg City Hall. The award ceremony on May 6th was part of the Uebersee-Club’s 100-year anniversary, which is being celebrated throughout 2022. The Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Olaf Scholz, took part in the ceremony at Hamburg City Hall and First Mayor Dr. Peter Tschentscher gave the welcoming address.
Fatema Poonawala won over the jury with her master’s thesis, titled “Building a resilient supply chain for biosamples in West Africa,” which focuses on preventing epidemics from becoming pandemics in developing countries like West Africa. During the current pandemic, there have been various delays in countries like West Africa due to challenges concerning the infrastructure, regulations, and lack of trained personnel. With her thesis, Fatema’s goal is to share insights on how to overcome these obstacles and make biosample supply chains more resilient. “For an international student like myself, being congratulated by the German Chancellor himself feels truly rewarding and fulfilling. I would like to thank Professor Maria Besiou for this opportunity and everyone else who helped me succeed,” she says.
The scholarship holder is currently enrolled in the M.Sc. program in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Kühne Logistics University and will graduate this year. She intends to use the travel scholarship to conduct expert interviews at the Institut Pasteur in Antwerp, Belgium.
KLU wishes to congratulate Fatema on this outstanding success. According to Professor Maria Besiou, Dean of Research and her thesis supervisor: “Following recent disease outbreaks like Ebola in West Africa and the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has recognized the value of operating resilient biosample supply chains, for example for blood or saliva. In her master’s thesis, Ms. Fatema Poonawala will try to shed some light on the challenges and way forward for biosample supply chains in developing countries.”
After finishing her studies this summer, Fatema intends to start working in the field of logistics and supply chains. KLU wishes her all the best for her future endeavors.
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