Profile: Professor Victor Anomah Ngu, Cameroon

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Born: 1926, Buea, Republic of Cameroon

Education: Secondary schooling in Sasse, Cameroon, and Ibadan, Nigeria; University of Ibadan (1948 - 1950); St Mary's Hospital Medical School, University of London (1951- 1954).

Career: Professor of Surgery, University of Ibadan (1965 - 1971); Professor of Surgery, Université de Yaoundé (1971 - 1974); Vice Chancellor, Université de Yaoundé (1974 - 1982); President of the Association of African Universities (1981 - 1982); Minister of Public Health, Government of Cameroon (1984 - 1988); Director of the Cancer Research Laboratory, Université de Yaoundé (1984 - ); Founder - Hope Clinic Cameroon (1991)

Awards: Grand Commandant de l'Ordre de la Valeur, Cameroun; Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in Clinical Cancer Chemotherapy (1972); Dr. Samuel Lawrence Adesuyi Award and Medal by the West African Health Community (1989); Leon H. Sullivan Achievement Award, U.S.A. (2003).

This is the first in WIPO Magazine's series of interviews with distinguished scientists and researchers in developing countries. Intellectual property is a system designed to reward and stimulate innovation and creativity, and each scientist in this series embodies these characteristics.

The medical career of Cameroonian doctor Victor Anomah Ngu spans 50 years and three continents. His cancer research won him international acclaim, and he is currently working on a therapeutic vaccine for use in treatment of HIV/AIDS. At 78 years old, Professor Ngu retains both his joy in discovery, and his commitment to science in the service of mankind. We spoke to Professor Ngu at his Clinique d'Espoir (Clinic of Hope) in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Professor Ngu, could you start by telling us how you first become interested in becoming a scientist?

From childhood, I've always been impressed by nature, by things that happen around me. I remember that in the hills where I grew up in Bamenda I could see stars very clearly, and I was very impressed by this. And as I grew up I was always wondering about these stars? How beautiful they are and why do they shine? From then on of course, the rest was natural. I could not help but try to find out more about the wonderful things about me. I think all scientists must have an inherent sense of wonder.

Later, I went to a secondary school in a place called Sasse in the south west of this country. We were the first lot of students and we had no equipment. Our first science laboratory had been in a...