Dr. Chinsamy-Turan’s work has been recognized by several highly acclaimed awards: for example, in 1995, she was awarded the National Research Foundation’s President’s Award, and in 1997/1998 she received the Royal Society of South Africa’s Meiring Naude Gold Medal for Research Excellence. In 2003 she won the National Science and Technology Forum Award for outstanding contributions to science engineering and technology, and in 2005, she won the Distinguished Women Scientist Award from the South African Department of Science and Technology, and the South African Woman of the Year Award which acknowledges her contributions to science both in terms of research and science communication.

 

Dr. Chinsamy-Turan has published extensively – both in international scientific journals (including four publications in Nature) and in the popular press. She is President of the Association of South African Women in Science and Engineering, and has also served as the Director of Iziko Museums Natural History Collections (which includes the South African Museum) where she was able to actively pursue her interests in communicating science to the wider community. Dr. Chinsamy-Turan is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and the University of Cape Town. She is the author of the first book devoted entirely to fossil bone microstructure: The Microstructure of Dinosaur Bone – Deciphering Biology Through Fine Scale Techniques (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005) which has been internationally acclaimed. Her latest book, published in 2008, is entitled Famous Dinosaurs of Africa and is specifically written to educate and excite children about the fabulous African heritage of dinosaurs.