November 2019
A Year of #ScienceForAll
This Giving Tuesday, see what a difference your donation can make.
Principal Professor Jack Nandi (left) and Chair of Department Physical Science Dr Felix Saouma (right) offer TRP’s XRD X-ray diffractometer an official welcome at Kaimosi Friends University College. During the proceedings, Professor Nandi noted the XRD would “remarkably boost advanced research for both the university, neighboring ones, and line Government agencies.”
2019 is shaping up to be a year of growth for The Reagent Project and the scientists we support—be they PhDs or high school students. Check out some TRP #ScienceForAll highlights below, then consider making your own end of year donation to keep catalyzing innovation into 2020.
Dr. Victor Shikuku, Physics, Materials and Environmental Chemistry Lecturer at Kaimoisi Friends University College, visits the University of Trier in Germany. He will be sharing his expertise in aromatic compounds and their potential as organic herbicides in vineyards.
1. Shimadzu Corp, manufacturer of the XRD X-ray diffractometer donates setup costs. All year, TRP has also been hard at work linking scientists in lower-resource areas to lab hardware. And in Kenya, we made one of our favorite matches to date. Last year, the international biotech company AstaReal donated an XRD X-ray diffractometer to help Dr. Victor Shikuku’s research into improving water quality in his region. This made it the first XRD in the country. However, the cost of installation remained prohibitive, and we began to fear the diffractometer’s lengthy sea voyage may have been in vain. But instead of despairing, we kicked into high gear, sending out a barrage of calls and emails. In the end, Shimadzu, the Japanese company that manufactured the diffractometer, donated a technician’s time and travel, and as of late October, Dr. Shikuku and his XRD will soon be open for business!
2. Reagent donations requests heat up. Reagents are harder to store and ship and legally more complicated to donate than gently used lab equipment. And TRP has been pondering and finagling ways to secure its own stockpile. Guess what? It worked! This year, six entities—including two universities, three biotech companies, and one private lab—approached us about re-gifting a whole spectrum of pricey reagents sitting around unused in their lab.
3. Propspect.io Foundation supports our pilot reagent donation program. Without someplace to store this windfall of reagent donations, their generosity would be for naught. That’s where Prospect.io comes in! Prospect.io is a sales automation company in Belgium dedicated to donating 1% of their monthly revenue to worthy causes. And in October, they donated the funds TRP needs to purchase an industrial refrigerator to store the reagents. Soon enough, we will be shipping them out to a scientist near you.