Astrophysics

Early Life

Mazlan Othman was born in Malaysia in 1951. She was very good at maths in school. This led her down a science path. She was set on doing physics. Othman earned her PhD at the University of Otago in astrophysics in 1981. She was the first woman to do this since it was founded in 1869.

Career Highlights

Othman joined the Prime Minister's Department in 1990. She set up and was head of the planetarium division. This then became the space science division in 1993. She became a professor of astrophysics at UKM in 1994. 

Early Life

Sheila was born in London. Her parents were scientists, but they did not study physics. Sheila was first interested in physics because she wanted to be an astronaut! She graduated in physics with astrophysics at the University of Manchester in 2006. In 2012 she received a doctorate (PhD) in planetary physics from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory. Her research focussed on analysing the magnetic fields of Saturn using data from the Cassini spacecraft

Early Life

Susan grew up in Kenya. She studied economics and sociology at University. She also has a Master’s degree in Astronomy.

Susan thinks every child should have the chance to look through a telescope. There are very few astronomers in Kenya. There was also no access to a planetarium when Susan grew up. This made it tough for children to have a go at using a telescope. Many would not know they could do astronomy as a hobby or choose it as a job.