2005 Media release

In celebrating Women's Month and in recognition of women's scientific achievements, the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) is sharing women physicists' love of physics as a way of bringing the world of physics and the realisation of a possible career in physics a step closer.

Physics can be fun and is an essential part of everyday life. Across South Africa scientists and communicators are working towards inspiring a new generation of scientists as part of the International Year of Physics 2005, as declared by the United Nations.

Igle Gledhill is a scientist at the CSIR. She is also a Fellow of Defencetek, a CSIR division that concentrates on peace, defence, and security. She is the president of the SA Association for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, which brings together professors, students and industrialists who work on fluid and structural problems.

"The team I work with tries to understand rapidly manoeuvring aircraft. In aeronautics, it's difficult to predict how air will behave as it flows over an aircraft near the speed of sound, because the flow is complicated by shocks and turbulence. However, predictions are still needed by the engineers to understand aircraft safety and performance, and they need the calculations of lift and drag.

"In the biotechnology field, my job in the team is to use computer models to gain insight into how enzymes might be inhibited, especially those enzymes that are active in infectious diseases."

Gledhill believes good science systems underpin growing economies.

"Physics is one of the most challenging and rewarding of the sciences. Unfortunately, many young people have been held back in their natural wish to pursue the sciences as a career. For the country to benefit, the actors in physics need to plan to attract and retain the most imaginative scientists of the century. This can be achieved by triggering exciting flagship projects, the opportunity to work with the best people, and the ability to make a difference at home."

Mmantsae Diale is studying towards her PhD degree in Physics at the University of Pretoria. Her field of study is the physics of semiconductors, and in particular III-Nitrides semiconductors.

"Physics forms the basis of technology. What physicists work on today, will be of benefit to everyone several years later. Physics stimulates your thinking skills. You become multi-talented and you are employable in many areas of analytical thinking. "

She admires Marie Curie, the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize - in Physics - in 1903.

"It is concerning that the last woman in physics to receive a Nobel Prize was Lisa Meitner who did so in 1963, for work done in 1937. Both women shared their prizes with men and both worked in the field of radio activity," says Diale.

Besides running her own consultancy, Diane Grayson is Professor Extraordinarius in the Physics Department at the University of Pretoria.

The first part of her job involves researching the difficulties people have in learning physics and developing teaching approaches that help them understand physics better. The second part involves implementing the research through a variety of means, including workshops, courses and programmes.

"I run a foundation programme for talented but underprepared black students who want to become science professionals, assisting lecturers in science, engineering, medicine and agriculture to improve their curricula and teaching approaches."

Grayston says physics can do a lot for South Africa and the country has the potential to produce many good physicists. Prerequisites are to improve school-based physics so that students find it interesting and can use it to learn fundamental concepts and important thinking skills, and have an adequate supply of funding for research and development.

Marjorie Mujaji is a senior lecturer in the School of Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand. Mujaji, who originally hails from Zimbabwe, was awarded the first Wits African Scholars Visiting Fellowship in 1996.

"I am involved in laser spectroscopy, presently pursuing two projects. One is using a dye laser to selectively excite optically active impurities or inclusions in transparent crystalline hosts. This work finds applications in areas such as optical storage, medicine and underwater communication. The other is using Raman scattering spectroscopy to study the superionic behaviour of solids. This has possible applications in electrochemical devices."

Mujaji says many of the modern technologies are physics driven and learners are exposed to some of these at an early age. This brings curiosity, awareness and can even generate interest in the subject.

"If nurtured properly, these qualities lead to a desire to pursue a physics-related career. Teachers play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between mere curiosity and a deep interest in the subject," she says.

Sharmila Goedhart is an astronomer at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory.

"The type of star I study is not visible to the naked eye, so I use radio waves. Studies of how the largest stars in the galaxy are born are starting to give astronomers insight into the basic processes taking place in star formation. Understanding star formation will help us understand how our solar system was formed.

"We live in very exciting times. There are so many opportunities that I can't even imagine where we will be in a few years time. I am certain of one thing though - we cannot make great progress unless we have more scientists on our teams. The days of a single scientist working in isolation are coming to an end. There is just too much data coming in for one person to handle it all," says Goedhart.

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