“I didn’t know where to begin, but I knew I wanted to learn,” he says. On Colgate’s campus, he gravitated toward the Cooley Science Library, where the number of books overwhelmed him. True to his wish to understand the world, Jimah studied abroad in Denmark and completed a research project about gender and economic policy. He’d never been to the United States before, and he’d never turned in schoolwork on a computer.
#THE BOOKWORM FULL#
“I was still interested in learning about the world … and Colgate offered that opportunity” by giving him a full scholarship, he says. As a scholarship student at one of Ghana’s elite high schools, he feared his future coursework in Ghana would be too science focused. The malaria parasite fascinates scientists because it has a complicated life cycle with many stages. Understanding parasite proteins could lead to solutions for both of those problems. The world desperately needs effective malaria vaccines, and parasites are getting better at resisting drugs. His lab will study proteins from parasites that cause malaria and other diseases. In January, Jimah joined Princeton University as a new faculty member. Inside that one-room library, Jimah set some goals: One, become a scientist. When he was 10, he became ill enough to be hospitalized. Malaria was especially familiar - he’d had it several times.
Paging through donated encyclopedias, he lingered over entries about diseases. When the border town of Bawku, Ghana, built its first library, young John Jimah ’08 became a regular visitor. Library reading inspired John Jimah ’08 to fight malaria.
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