Towards the end of 2017 Ms Faith Nkosi, Senior Research Assistant and registered MSc student in the Department Veterinary Tropical Diseases, was accepted as one of 27 students to enrol for the first Molecular Data for Infectious Diseases course, hosted by the Institute for Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.

This course comprised two parts, the first being a distant-learning (online) section, which candidates had to complete successfully in order to proceed to the face-to-face section, at ITM in Antwerp. Ms Nkosi passed the online section and was awarded a scholarship which enabled her to participate in the 3-week-long face-to-face section, which was presented in February 2018. She joined a group of 14 international candidates who participated in this course.

This was a very empowering course which gave candidates insight into analysis methods, phylodynamics, population dynamics and concepts of epidemiology. All 14 students graduated and returned to their countries smiling with knowledge and certificates in their hands.

Well done, Faith!