Prof. Hulda Shaidi Swai, a Nanotechnology Scientist, holds a PhD in Biomaterials, from Queen Mary's College, University of London, UK where she also worked as a Researcher for 9 years. In February 2021 was awarded the Nkwamwe Nkuruma award. A competitive regional award given to  female who has excelled in Science  . In October 2020 was awarded Oliver Tambo chair in Nanotechnology in relation with Biomedical health and Sustainable agriculture after a very rigorous competition of African Senior Professors. This is a five year program with funding of 1m USD. With good progress the project can be extended up to 15 years In August 2019 was awarded Head/ PI : Incubation Centre namely Data driven innovation incubation Centre (DDI) The Centre address Food and Nutritional Security in the region after a very stiff competition. With funding from IUCEA of 250,000. USD In May 2018, Prof. Swai was appointed the President of the African Materials Research Society (AMRS). this was followed by a very successful conference in 2019 held in Arusha Tanzania under her leadership In 2013 she was appointed as an Extraordinary Professor in University of Pretoria, South Africa. In 2015, Prof. Swai joined NM-AIST and managed to acquire funds (USD 6 Million) from the World Bank for the establishment of the African Centre for Research, Agricultural Advancement, Teaching Excellence and Sustainability (CREATES) in Food and Nutritional Security in Africa which was established at the NM-AIST through the World Bank’s African Centers of Excellence (ACE II) initiative. This was also very competitive. The ACE II initiative aims at building training and research capacity in the region by training and raising a critical mass of specialized and skilled human capital that can use a multidisciplinary approach to ensure a sustainable environment, food, and nutritional security. Prof. Swai is the CREATES Director at NM-AIST. The program aims to strengthening content, delivery, outputs and outreach for the MSc and PhD programs in Life Sciences and other related programs, with particular focus on core thematic areas of Sustainable Agriculture, Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management; Food and Nutrition Sciences; and Health and Biomedical Sciences. These are also Departmental and CREATES pillars in the School of Life Science and Bioengineering (LiSBE) at NM-AIST. The CREATES program is geared to contribute to food and nutrition security in East Africa and Sub Saharan regions. This is a 5-program launched in the year 2016 and it is worth 6 million USD. Prior to joining NM-AIST, Prof. Swai has worked as a Senior Principal Researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in South Africa, where she led the Encapsulation and Delivery Research Group for 14 years. In this capacity, she proven her ability to independently formulate and execute research projects and implement scientific research programmes, both in public and private sectors. Prof. Swai also instituted and headed the Department of Science and Technology (DST)/ CSIR Pan-African Centre of Excellence in Applied Nanomedicine Research and Training. In this capacity, she won a grant in Research and Training on infectious diseases of poverty worth R 60 million (about US $ 7 million).