Esperança da Costa
Esperança Maria Eduardo Francisco da Costa was born on 3 May 1961 in a modest suburb of Luanda. She started primary school in 1967 in her home suburb. Her love of nature - especially plants - was obvious at an early age, as she loved helping her mother care for their garden.
She started secondary school in 1970 at the Escola Secundária General Geraldo Victor in Villa Alice. She completed her high school education in 1977 at the Liceu Feminino D. guiomar de Lencastre in Luanda. Esperança excelled in her studies at high school and was awarded academic honours. She then studied for a degree in Biology at the Science Faculty (of the Agostinho Neto University) where she was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer to Professor Carlos Alvarez. She completed her degree in 1985 with a thesis on the taxonomy of the family Bignoniaceae for Conspectus Florae Angolensis. From 1983-1984 she spent a year doing research under the mentorship of Dr Maria Adélia Diniz Martins at the Centro de Botânica (Centre for Botany) at the Instituto de Investigação Cientifica (Institute for Scientific Research) in Lisbon, Portugal. The visit was supported by funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and from the INABE (National Institute of Bursaries of Angola).
Returning to Luanda in 1985, Esperança was appointed Assistant in Plant Biology within the Biology Department of the Science Faculty at the University of Agostinho Neto. She soon progressed to head this unit and helped to develop the Luanda Herbarium, which is an invaluable asset to the faculty. In December 1985 she was invited by the African Biosciences Network (ABN) to participate in a meeting on "Forest Management in Africa" in Harare, Zimbabwe. She thus became the contact person for ABN in Angola. She headed the Biology Department at the Agostinho Neto University from 1986 to 1990. In 1990 she was given the opportunity to undertake a Masters degree in Plant Productivity at the Technical University of Lisbon (UTL), Portugal. In 1992 she began researching an area of plant ecology that culminated in a doctorate that was awarded to her in 1997 by the Institute for Agronomy of the UTL, Portugal.
Esperança is a member of various scientific organisations, both national and international. She has participated in several scientific congresses and authored approximately 10 scientific papers. She now supervises students in Biology and actively participates in scientific programmes concerning biodiversity, both nationally and regionally. Esperança is currently the National Coordinator for SABONET-Angola. She is a Professor at the Agostinho Neto University, Vice-Director for Scientific Matters within the Science Faculty and manages the Luanda Herbarium. Her main goals are to promote scientific research in Angola, and to mobilise human resources into lecturing and botanical research in order to contribute to the inventory of the vegetation cover of Angola, in this way contributing to an integrated approach to natural resource management in the country. Esperança is married, and besides the activities related to her profession, enjoys hiking, cooking and listening to music.
SABONET News 5.3: 136
