Maryam is originally from the small diamond mining town of Kimberley, and although she was the Dux student at her high school she had no idea that one day she would have the opportunity to attend university. As a volunteer at various children homes in Kimberley, she saw first-hand how severely children were affected by the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) pandemic this concerned her so much that she felt she had to do something to assist. People infected with HIV face social stigma and judgement and the little children born with this disease have no choice. Maryam secured a bursary from De Beers in 2001 and started her journey to specialise in Chemistry. The fact that she stemmed from a previously disadvantaged background did not deter her from entering an academic environment which was rife with both gender and race inequalities at the time. Women are still to a large extent underrepresented in this field of study and she experienced discrimination and had to overcome many hurdles personally and professionally due to this disproportion. Maryam persevered nonetheless and received her PhD in Chemistry in 2013. Her career spans a decade in academics and research with her current career progression in Research Management and Administration. Maryam and her husband, Yasar Amra founded a company called SA Rebuilders in 2016 with the sole intention of serving humanity by using Science and Technology to solve societal problems. They have received numerous national and international awards which include the Leader in Innovation fellow (LIF) pitch win held in London in 2020, the TIA-GCIP best women-led team in the medical device category, the TIA Female Investees winner for social impact in 2019 and we were one of the 5 winners in the Scale out for impact (SOFI) programme alongside our UK partner TechforTrade in 2021. She has made appearances on both BBC world service and 1KZN (Channel 261, DSTV).