Name: Senamile Masango
Role/Occupation: Nuclear Physicist, Founder and Chairperson of Women in Science and Engineering in Africa (Wise Africa).
Country: South Africa
Senamile Masango is a nuclear physicist and the founder and chairperson of Women in Science and Engineering in Africa (Wise Africa). Wise Africa is a non-profit organization that aims to provide leadership and role models to young people aspiring to enter the fields of science and engineering as well as lobbies for the advancement of women in science and engineering and highlights and addresses the problems that are faced by women in these fields.
Whilst in high school, Masango was introduced to astronomy by her geography teacher and discovered that people could travel to space. She remembers being intrigued by the universe and where we come from, “I wanted to be the first African to travel to space,” she recalls.
She completed matric at Mlokothwa High school and went on to study towards a BSc in Physics and Electronics at the University of Zululand. After the unfortunate loss of her daughter, Sindisiwe, she decided to pursue further studies and studied Nuclear Physics. She then joined the Coulex group led by Professor Orce at the University of the Western Cape. Masango recently submitted her Master's thesis in Nuclear Physics which focused on the structure of the nucleus with the method called Coulomb excitation. She also came back to South Africa to collect data for the PhD research which she will continue in Canada.
Masango is ecstatic about the contribution that her research is adding to the physics body as much remains undiscovered about the nucleus and as she excitedly relays, “until date no one knows the formula of a nuclear force.” Masango was not only part of the first African led experiment at CERN, but was also the only female in the group, which ultimately lead her to receive the title of the first African woman to conduct the first African led experiment at CERN. She received this acknowledgement from the president.
She feels that being a woman in the STEM field is not an easy feat, “no one believes in you, you have to prove that you are capable and work two times harder.” She believes that girls are discouraged at an early age from STEM fields either because they believe that science and engineering are just too difficult or that it is simply not for them.
As a continent in terms of STEM, Masango feels that Africa still has a long way to go, “we are not there yet because people are still struggling to access basics needs of such as food, water, electricity… so our government is focusing on that,” she explains. The other challenge she believes the continent is facing is infrastructure and elaborates that, “we all know that science is a practical subject, [yet] most of the schools don’t have science facilities like laboratories.” Hence she is also motivated by the use of the platform provided by Wise Africa to make a difference and feels that she is “making education fashionable.”
Read more about Senamile Masango, a woman who dreamt about space travel as a student and now affords other young people the ability to dream through her work and organisation. Senamile Masango was interviewed by Dhruti Dheda, the founder of the African Steminist on behalf of Geeky Girl Reality. The full interview can be found here.
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