When Veronica Mwaba walks into a room, she carries with her a wealth of knowledge and a deep passion for making science accessible to everyday people. She believes that science isn’t just for researchers in white lab coats—it belongs to farmers struggling with crop diseases, mothers concerned about their children’s health, and policymakers searching for solutions to pressing national challenges.
By Alfonso Kasongo
That passion earned her the Outstanding Contribution Grassroots and Community Engagement Award from the Alliance for Science, a global initiative promoting the use of scientific innovations to improve lives. But for Mwaba, the recognition is not about personal achievement—it’s about the journey of making science matter to the people who need it most.
A personal mission to make science accessible
Growing up in Zambia, Mwaba saw firsthand how misinformation and a lack of scientific knowledge could hurt communities. Farmers would lose entire harvests to diseases they didn’t understand. Mothers would turn to rumours rather than facts when making health decisions for their children. The gap between science and society was wide—and she was determined to bridge it.
That drive led her to establish the Dziwa Science and Technology Trust (DSaT), an organization dedicated to making science understandable and useful for the Zambian people. Through DSaT, she has trained journalists to communicate scientific research in ways that ordinary people can relate to. She has built bridges between scientists and the public, ensuring that important breakthroughs don’t remain hidden in academic journals but are shared with the people who need them most.
Fighting COVID-19 with facts, not fear
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, confusion and fear spread as fast as the virus itself. False information flooded social media, making it hard for people to know what to believe. Mwaba knew that good communication could save lives.
Through the COVID-19 Linking Science to Better Lives project, she helped train over 100 journalists across Zambia, teaching them how to report on the pandemic accurately and responsibly. These journalists became a crucial source of trustworthy information, explaining government interventions, vaccines, and scientific solutions in ways that ordinary people could understand.
“It wasn’t just about reporting numbers and policies,” Mwaba recalls. “It was about helping people feel informed, empowered, and safe.”
Championing agriculture and environmental science
Mwaba’s work goes far beyond health communication. She has also tackled agriculture and environmental challenges, ensuring that farmers and policymakers have access to science-backed solutions.
One of her most impactful projects involved fighting Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD), a devastating crop disease threatening the livelihoods of thousands of farmers. Working with CABI and the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI), she led an awareness campaign to help farmers understand the disease and how to combat it. She also trained 45 journalists to report on CBSD from multiple angles—scientific, social, and economic—so that communities could take informed action.
“Science is not just about discoveries,” she explains. “It’s about how those discoveries touch lives.”
Bringing science to the streets
Mwaba understands that science communication isn’t just about writing articles or holding conferences—it’s about making science part of everyday conversations. That’s why she organized the Walk for Evidence-Based Science, bringing together government officials, researchers, journalists, and everyday citizens to march in support of science-backed policies and innovations.
She also helped launch the Science Café series, where people from all walks of life—farmers, students, entrepreneurs—gather to discuss scientific solutions to real-world problems. One of the most impactful discussions focused on solar energy as an alternative to Zambia’s unreliable hydroelectric power. Experts shared research showing that Zambia could earn an estimated $2.5 billion over 25 years through solar energy, a figure that caught the attention of policymakers.
Taking Zambia’s science story to the world
Mwaba’s influence doesn’t stop at Zambia’s borders. She has been engaged in developing communication strategies for genome editing in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and other African nations embracing biotechnology. She also works with the AUDA-NEPAD Centre of Excellence in Science, Technology, and Innovation, one of the African Union’s key institutions driving science-backed development across the continent.
Her work aligns with Africa’s Agenda 2063, a vision of a continent thriving on innovation and scientific progress. She sees science not just as a tool for solving problems but as a foundation for Africa’s future.
A legacy of impact
For Veronica Mwaba, science communication is not just a profession—it’s a calling. Whether she’s training journalists, helping farmers fight crop diseases, or making complex scientific concepts understandable for ordinary people, her goal is always the same: to give science a human voice.
“Science isn’t just something we study,” she says. “It’s something we live. It’s in the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the choices we make every day. If we can make science part of people’s lives, we can change the world.”
With her passion, dedication, and tireless advocacy, Mwaba is already doing just that.
