Clayton Clay wins international award

Dr Sam Newton, a columnist of The Mirror, newspaper and clinical research fellow and public health specialist of the Ghana Health Service, has won the 2009 Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) International Essay Competition.
Dr Newton, who writes under the pen name Dr Clayton Clay, jointly won the award with his essay, Infant Vitamin A Supplementation - From Research to Policy, which covered research into infant Vitamin A supplementation from studies in the Kassena-Nankana District of Ghana to the current Vitamin A studies at the Kintampo Research Centre and how the research has influenced policy, with three researchers from Kyrgzstan who co-authored the essay, Introducing Sprinkles in Kyrgzstan: From people’s mandate to national policy.
The award winners will receive citations, cash prizes and sponsorship to present their work at an international conference on a date to be announced soon.
Speaking to The Mirror, Dr Newton, the paper’s health columnist for the past 12 years, noted that it was his first international award after writing for 14 years.
“I love writing and this award will spur me on to do more,” he said, and advised the youth, especially young scientists, not to be intimidated by what people said about science and research but be determined and they would go far.
“They should endeavour to go into research and publicise their work to put them in the limelight,” he added.
Dr Newton explained that the CHNRI’s mandate was to advocate research programmes directed at addressing conditions responsible for the most important diseases suffered by children, especially in developing countries where the major burden of disease remained. 
He said the competition was, therefore, aimed at finding best examples of research that could be translated into a policy to improve child health and nutrition status at the national, regional or global level.
Dr Newton said the competition attracted many entries from young researchers in developing countries which were reviewed by a jury of international repute.