Born and raised in the small mining town of Johannesburg’s Nigel, school meant everything to Aurelia Williams. She never missed a day, did all her homework and strove to be a top student. It was when she heard her teacher talk about chemistry that she decided to research the field. Not only did her curiosity set on her path to becoming a Biochemist, but she became one of South Africa’s youngest biochemistry PhD’s at the age of 27 and a Professor by the time she was 35.
Aurelia completed her bachelors, honours and masters degrees at the University of Johannesburg, and her PhD at the University of Pretoria. Now, the nice thing about being a young Biochemistry PhD graduate is that you suddenly get handed opportunities that you would not be given otherwise.
After completing her PhD, she was given an opportunity to work and do her postdoctoral studies at the University of California in San Francisco. The most important lesson she learnt from this experience was that South Africans were as brilliant as those in the rest of the world. This made her feel even more confident and ready to contribute to the South African scientific community.
After 3 years in the US, Aurelia returned to South Africa in 2016, started working as a lecturer at North West University and is today an Associate Professor. She specialises in a field called metabolomics, which is the study of small, microscopic molecules within the human body, and how each molecule affects everything else.
She is also a founding member and deputy secretary of Metabolomics South Africa, serves on the Board of Directors and is the chair of the International Metabolomics Society and is a facilitator for the Technological Higher Education Network South Africa. She has also written and contributed to more than 20 academic papers.
Other interesting thing about Aurelia:
- At the University of California, she studied the impact of certain genetic factors on brain tumour metabolism and growth
- Part of her work requires her to understand highly advanced and complex mathematics.
- She has also published academic papers in several journals which include Molecular, Metabolomics, Current Pharmaceutical Design, Translational Oncology and Scientific Reports.
- In addition to her passion for academics, Aurelia also has a passion for empowering young girls. She was involved in the DreamGirls Academy, an organisation that asks powerful women to encourage teen girls and young women to also empower themselves.
Very proud of her achievement I pray that God will use her to teach all our young kids,God Bless with Many more achievements. My daughter studies at UJ as a analytical chemistry and quality degree.
So it shows that our you children can achieve whatever their want to become in life.
I salute you for Ur big achievement.