Augustina Sylverken is a senior Lecturer at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology, KNUST- Kumasi. Dr. Sylverken is skilled in Clinical Research, Epidemiology, Life Sciences, Laboratory Skills, and Infectious Diseases. She is a major supporter for women in STEM fields and a founder member of WiSTEM.Gh a significant non-governmental organization dedicated to educating the next generation of female STEM professionals
Dr. Sylverken has a BSc Biological Sciences, an MPhil Clinical Microbiology and a PhD Clinical Microbiology from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. As a PhD candidate she worked on a UBS Optimus Foundation-funded study. Dr. Sylverken received some of her initial training at Germany’s famed Bernhard Nocht Institute of Tropical Medicine, where she acquired expertise and insight into the utilization of cutting-edge technology in virus discovery.
Dr. Sylverken has a number of publications to her name including Bacterial etiology of sexually transmitted infections at a STI clinic in Ghana; use of multiplex real time PCR, Development of a whole-virus ELISA for serological evaluation of domestic livestock as possible hosts of human coronavirus, Use of social media in a national Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Survey: lessons from the first anti-tuberculosis drug resistance survey in Ghana and many others. She specializes in Viral diseases, Zoonotic infections, Emerging and reemerging Infectious diseases, Tuberculosis (Multidrug resistance), Gender issues
Augustina Sylverken, Achievements
Dr. Sylverken was honored as one of Ghana’s 12 Frontline Covid-19 Heroes on Saturday, September 18, 2021, she was presented with a Global Humanitarian Award at Labadi Beach. Dr. Sylverken is a member of a 7-person Committee appointed by the Vice Chancellor of KNUST to chart a course for combating the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. She is the only female on the committee as well. She is also a member of the KNUST Vaccine Development and Production Committee and the COVID-19 Focal Person for the College of Science add and attends the bimonthly Ghana National Technical Coordinating Committee meetings and participates on the Research Coordination Thematic Group for COVID-19 Research in Ghana.
Augustina is a member of the Ghana Young Academy of Arts and Sciences and an affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences for 2016-2020. She is also a Fellow of the prestigious African Research Excellence Fund’s (AREF) Excell Researcher and Leadership Development Programme. She is also a member of the Developing World Organization for Women in Science (OWSD). She has a long list of publications, with more than 80 in recognized journals to her name.
Dr. Sylverken will forever be one of Ghana’s STEM heroes for her contribution to science during Ghana’s Covid-19 pandemic as she helped immensely in Ghana research field to help find a solution to put an end to the pandemic.