Who are you?

My name is Yara Rodrigues. I’m Capeverdian. I’m doing my PhD at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Lisbon, Portugal.

Why do you attend the YASE meeting?

The main objective of participating here at YASE conference is to try to do network with people from different fields and gather informations and knowledge to apply in different ways to my community.

What do you think about the fact that many young scientists don’t return in Africa after their PhD?

Basically, one of the main problem with the brain drain from African students is because when you return to Africa, you have this lack of opportunities compared to what you have here in Europe. You have the best environment for work and when you return to your country, you don’t have that. You have problems at different levels, including governmentals, even the basic ones.

Does this conference underlined some solutions to this brain drain?

I really liked the conference. We really touched in different points that we need to go further to solve African problems regarding to science. But I really think we should think more about the real solutions that we should apply for those problems. Solutions like: when I finish my PhD in a European country, what are the next steps? What are the real solutions? What I should do? I have a lot of ideas of course, but we should talk more about this because I think it’s urgent.

Interview by Jean-Bruno Tagne