In situ with Tebello Nyokong

For the first three years of high school, I was in the humanities doing history, geography etc. I did not enjoy them because I would be asked to write a 10-page essay, and I could do it in half a page. I was very brief and couldn’t go on and on, and my teachers would be mad at me. Today I work a lot with the humanities people. I think we should be working together in one building, in one room, while accommodating each other’s ideas.

When I got to university, there were many opportunities to do dentistry. Still, I was interested in the fact that chemistry is somehow related to medicine. Chemists can develop therapies while doctors administer them. I felt I should be at that fundamental part where I develop the drugs myself. I could actually be a part of the solution by being part of the development of drugs.

I work with lots of students. They think I’m too dangerous in the lab; they really don’t like it. I show them what to do, but they ask me to leave.