Armelle Tsamo Tontsa

Armelle holds a degree in Chemistry and earned her M.Sc. (2009) and Ph.D. (2014) from the University of Yaoundé 1. Her academic journey led her to postdoctoral positions at the Georg August University of Göttingen (Germany) and the Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa). Since 2020, she has been a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon.

Armelle’s research focuses on bioactive secondary metabolites from natural sources for drug discovery, using metabolomics, dereplication, and structural elucidation to investigate medicinal plants and fungi, bridging traditional medicine with modern pharmacology. She has made significant contributions to her field, with over 25 scholarly publications, and actively participates in national and international conferences. She is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of researchers and supervising students from various universities across Cameroon.

She has been honored with numerous prestigious fellowships and awards throughout her career. Notable accolades include the Canadian Commonwealth Exchange Program (2009) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) fellowship (2014) during her doctoral studies. She later received the South African National Research Foundation fellowship (2016–2019), the Royal Society of Chemistry Research Grant (2021), the DAAD Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists (2020 and 2022), the OPCW Fellowship Programme (2023), and the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Researcher Development Grant (2023). She was recently awarded the Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Foundation Award in 2024 to conduct a two-year project in pharmacognosy at Université Paris-Saclay in France.

Armelle is an active member of esteemed scientific organizations, including the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and the Cameroon Professional Research-Oriented Women Network (CaPROWN). She is a young affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), a member of the Cameroon Academy of Young Scientists (CAYS), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the Global Young Academy (GYA), where she co-leads the Scientific Excellence Working Group.

Beyond her research, Armelle is a dedicated peer reviewer for internationally renowned journals, a strong advocate for STEM education for women and girls, and a mentor to female postgraduate students. She is interested in science advice and diplomacy and is part of the third cohort of the Science Advice Skills Development Program (SASDP-3). Her commitment to leadership and excellence is further exemplified by her participation in the African Science Leadership Programme (Cohort 9), the Belmont Leadership Workshop, and her certification as a scholarship mentor from Africademics.