In this instance, the academy was impressed by Dr Djimdé’s research activities which started in the late 1990s with interviewing traditional healers on local remedies used to treat jaundice, botanically characterising one commonly used plant, making crude extracts and testing the toxicology on rats and its pharmacological properties on guinea pigs. Today, Dr Djimdé is known as one of the world experts in the molecular characterisation of malaria parasite resistance to antimalarials. He leads a team of 12 young Malian scientists and has co-authored 38 publications some of which are in reknown peer reviewed journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Genetics, The Lancet, Journal of Infectious Diseases and International Journal of Parasitology.

In his acceptance speech, Dr Djimdé acknowledged the contribution of the whole team of the MRTC, the People and the Government of Mali. He also thanked several Institutions including EDCTP, the USA National Institutes of Health, TDR, MIM/TDR, Howard Hughes Medical Institution and the IAEA for their support to his research.