Name: Zoleka Filander
Role/Occupation: Offshore Benthic Ecologist (Department of Environmental Affairs: Oceans and Coast) and PhD student (Nelson Mandela University: Zoology Department)
Country: South Africa
A mother, wife, marine scientist, science communicator, mentor, PhD student and public servant, Zoleka Filander is a woman who wears many hats. Filander works as an offshore benthic ecologist for the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and is a PhD student at the Zoology Department of the Nelson Mandela University. She juggles all her responsibilities with careful planning. Filander spends almost three months a year at sea. While at sea, she makes sure she works on communicating her science, by drafting popular articles and reports. When she returns home, she takes time off to spend quality time with her family and to work on her PhD thesis. Her work generally involves proposing, developing and implementing projects that feed into the sustainable management of South African marine resources.
Being a small town girl from the rural landlocked, Kokstad in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Filander landed in her profession by pure chance as she was unaware of a career in marine biology. She completed her undergraduate degree and subsequent honours degree in Marine Biology at the Walter Sisulu University. She then completed her MSc in Marine Biology at the University of Cape Town. This was followed by her appointment as by the offshore scientist for the Department of Environmental Affairs. As one of the few females in this emerging field, she describes her experience as “extremely challenging but equally rewarding.”
One of the most rewarding parts of her job, “is capturing the beauty of the ocean sea floor and sharing these discoveries with not just [her] family, but with the public at large.” However, she cannot disregard some of discrimination she has had to endure thus far from both her male and female counterparts. She has learnt to deal with this by filtering it out and just working to the best of her abilities “without losing sight of who [she is] and what [she represents] in the space.” Her advice to young girls aspiring to a STEM career is to “not allow ANYBODY to put you in a box, you know your capabilities and limits. Never forget to thrive to be the best you can be, and recognize that it is the best without conforming to anybody else’s standards.”
Filander believes that this is the best time to have a STEM career in Africa, as “there are several initiatives that have recognized this [emergence of STEM fields in Africa and its associated lack of infrastructure] and the importance of addressing these knowledge gaps by ensuring international and regional collaborations, capacity development, and mentorship.” She identifies South Africa has having “a unique geographic position where the country’s biology, and climate are influenced by three oceans… [making it] one of the best ‘natural labs’ to assist with better understanding some of the current global challenges/pressures.”
Dive further into the interview below and be inspired by our very own South African Indiana Jones Zoleka Filander.
Zoleka Filander was interviewed by Dhruti Dheda, the founder of the African Steminist on behalf of Geeky Girl Reality. The full interview can be found here.
Коментари