Delvina: Turning chicken Bones into batteries

IN a world obsessed with instant fame, viral dances and Instagram filters, there’s something beautifully radical about a woman who chooses science over spectacle.

Meet Dr Delvina Japhet Tarimo, Tanzanian physicist whose curiosity has taken her from the shadows of power cuts in Arusha to state-ofthe-art laboratories in Germany, and from leftovers on a dinner plate to powering the future of clean energy.

Yes, you read that right, this woman is turning chicken bones into batteries. And no, it’s not a metaphor. It’s science. Delvina’s story begins like many quietly extraordinary African stories do in a humble classroom, full of promise and buzzing with questions no one else thought to ask.

She was born in Arusha, Tanzania, but her father is originally from Marangu, Kilimanjaro. She attended Kikatiti Secondary School in Arusha, Tanzania, and later joined Dodoma High School, where she studied Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics (PCM). She later pursued a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics at St. John’s University in Tanzania and then continued with a master’s degree in education.n, a blackout meant playtime by candlelight or early bedtime. For Delvina, it was an itch that needed scratching.

She then earned a BSc in Physics and Mathematics at St. John’s University in Tanzania, followed by a master’s in education. But still, something in her whispered, “Not yet.” That whisper led her to pursue a second master’s degree in physics, specialising in material science at the University of Dar es Salaam.

It was there that she met her mentors, Dr Margaret Samiji and Professor Nuru Mlyuka both pioneers in solar energy. They didn’t just teach her; they saw her. And more importantly, they opened doors.

One such door took her to the NANOSMAT Conference in South Africa, a major scientific gathering focused on nano-structured materials.

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She arrived with an abstract, a suitcase, and enough nerves to power a small city. But it was there she met Prof Ncholu Manyala, a worldleading expert in nanomaterials. Instead of talking test scores, they spoke of visions. That conversation earned her a PhD placement at the University of Pretoria under the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) a prestigious programme focused on boosting research talent across Africa.

She was awarded full funding, and off she went armed with ambition and what she now describes as “unrelenting faith”. Within two years, yes, just two she became the youngest Tanzanian woman to earn a PhD in Physics.

Her research? Energy nanomaterials for batteries and supercapacitors. Translation: how to make batteries better, cleaner, and more affordable. Her PhD journey wasn’t glamorous. It meant 48-hour lab shifts, surviving on coffee, and skipping most social events.

“There were nights when I didn’t even go home,” she says. “I was afraid I’d miss a reaction or an experimental anomaly. My lab became my home; my experiments became my children.” She graduated straight into a series of academic roles technician, assistant lecturer, lab manager and her vision expanded.

It was never just about charging phones faster. It was about energy justice, about clinics that could store vaccines properly, about schools that didn’t shut down at 2pm due to power cuts, about an Africa where energy is clean, cheap, and constant.

Then came 2020 and with it, the pandemic. The world paused. Scientists, like the rest of us, found themselves confined indoors. Delvina, ever curious, stared at her dinner table and saw something no one else did, chicken bones. Most of us see scraps. She saw potential.

“I just thought, can this store energy?” she laughs. When labs reopened, she tested her hypothesis. She carbonised the bones, ground them into powder, and applied them to electrochemical energy tests.

The result? A fully functional supercapacitor made from, wait for it, cooked chicken bones. It wasn’t a gimmick. It worked. She became the first scientist in the world to successfully apply cooked chicken bones in supercapacitor technology.

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And yes, she won a major research award for it. After completing her PhD, Delvina wanted to take her mission global. She applied to the INM – Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Germany, one of Europe’s most competitive science hubs.

Her new boss, Prof Volker Presser, immediately saw her potential and encouraged her to apply for the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, awarded to just 20–25 per cent of the world’s most promising scientists. She got it. With that award, Delvina officially became an independent scientist in Germany.

She was even invited to Bellevue Palace in Berlin to meet the German President, FrankWalter Steinmeier, a surreal moment for a girl once chasing candlelight during blackouts. Today, Dr Tarimo is spearheading research into lithium-sulphur batteries, an eco-friendly alternative to the ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries we all rely on.

Sulphur is cheaper, safer, and here’s the best bit lithium-sulphur batteries store up to five times more energy. Imagine charging your phone once a week. Imagine a rural hospital running uninterrupted for days. That’s what Delvina is working on. But she’s not all lab coats and test tubes.

Delvina loves hiking, cooking Tanzanian food, and exploring world cuisines with her family. “I believe the best scientists are curious about everything people, nature, cultures, not just chemicals,” she says. She’s also deeply committed to mentorship, especially for girls. “I was told physics is for men,” she recalls. “I know what it’s like to be underestimated.

But I also know what’s possible when someone believes in you.” Her dream is a continent-wide support system for African girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, from primary school to PhD.

Role models, inclusive classrooms, scholarships, and policies that let ambition bloom. Recently, she was the only Tanzanian scientist selected to attend the 74th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany, where she shared space (and ideas) with Nobel Prize winners like Akira Yoshino and Sir Stanley Whittingham, the pioneers behind the very lithium-ion batteries she now seeks to improve.

She was also part of a powerful panel discussion titled “Driving the Change: The Broad Impact of Electric Mobility on Energy Networks and Society”, alongside Ford Europe executives and editors from Nature. This wasn’t just a seat at the table.

It was her table. In an age where TikTok trends generate more noise than Nobel lectures, Dr Delvina is a rare reminder that science still changes lives.

That brilliance, when coupled with purpose, can indeed light up the world, one battery at a time. So next time your phone takes forever to charge, or your town suffers another blackout, remember the name Delvina Tarimo.

Somewhere in a German lab, she’s probably fiddling with chicken bones, rewriting the rules of energy and smiling quietly while doing it. And yes, she calls it science. But we think it’s magic.