Ameenah Gurib-Fakim

Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim served as the 6th President of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Prior to her presidency, she headed the Centre International de Développement Pharmaceutique (CIDP) as its managing director and taught organic chemistry at the University of Mauritius. She has also held senior positions at the university as Dean of the Faculty of Science and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Gurib-Fakim holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Surrey and a PhD from the University of Exeter.

She has played an active role in global environmental and scientific debates, serving as Chair of the International Council for Scientific Union’s Regional Office for Africa from 2011 to 2013. As one of the founders of the Pan African Association of African Medicinal Plants, she helped produce the first African Herbal Pharmacopoeia and has written extensively on biodiversity and how to grow without harming nature.

Gurib-Fakim has received several prestigious awards, including the L’Oreal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science in 2007 and the African Union Commission Award for Women in Science in 2009. She was named one of Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women in 2016 and 2017. In 2021, she became a Distinguished Professor at the John Wesley School of Leadership in the USA.