Physicists From South Africa

"It is impossible to do everything yourself."

"The racial imbalance in the workforce remains the major problem."

"At SAAO there are a few women in scientific posts."

"All in senior engineering or IT posts. Of the 25 astronomers on the SAAO staff, 5 are women only one of them born in South Africa."

"Of the 5 astronomers on the Executive Committee, I am the only woman."

"8 or 9 hours now, but I used to do 10 to 12 when I did more research."

"I have a husband, John Menzies, who is also an astronomer and who has always been very supportive."

"I do not have children, and am immensely impressed by women who do and also manage to be successful astronomers."

"Less bureaucracy would help in almost every single way."

"As far as my career is concerned I am sure I have got where I am going."

"It is well worth it, but astronomy has to be your life, not just your job, or you are unlikely to do well or be happy."

"If you are going to get married and or have children then you must find a partner who is a true partner."

"Astronomy has to be your life, not just your job, or you are unlikely to do well or be happy. If you are going to get married…then you must find a partner who is a true partner, because it is impossible to do everything yourself."

"It is 33 years since I got my PhD."

"I am currently Head of the Astronomy Division and I was Acting Director for about 18 months following the death of the Director."

"I have also been President of the South African Institute of Physics."

"The only woman and only astronomer to hold that position."

"What is clear in South Africa is that many things were strongly biased against women prior to our first democratic election in 1994."

"That bias has been more or less eliminated since."

"That is not to say that women occupy 50% of top posts, but there are at least some women in top posts and the profile of the workforce is gradually changing."

"The legislation that was put in place to try and remove racial discrimination."

"Is also dealing with other types of discrimination but it will take time."

"My responsibilities involve implementing structured light to increase the bandwidth of optical communications systems. I design and construct optical experiments as well as develop code to automate measurement processes and analyze data."

"I also assist on the business process and program development of our prototyping facility which develops photonics prototypes well-aligned to market needs."

"Our goal is to build relationships with companies so we can help meet their needs and solve their problems in ways that benefit our students, too"

"That may be talent development, industry research, or even developing innovative curriculum to meet emerging workforce needs"

"Apart from enjoying and having an aptitude for math and science at school, I decided to pursue a career in physics because there are very few female scientists in South Africa. Having a degree in physics opens the door to a variety of careers across a variety of sectors. And since only a few women pursue these careers it means more opportunities for those who do."

"I feel that many of us are often not open to seeing the bigger picture. Perhaps, in this era of information inundation, we prefer or feel more comfortable forgetting how much we still don’t know."

"I would like to point out that all the information we have gathered, all the observations we have made, have resulted from exploring the unknown."

"Life on Mars will be a precious and fragile resource, and I believe morality there will be defined by a deep appreciation for life and all that’s needed to sustain it, and I believe that this attitude will filter down to Earth."

"There is also hope that even in these days of increasing specialization there is a unity in the human experience."

"Since my first discussions of ecological problems with Professor John Day around 1950 and since reading Konrad Lorenz's “King Solomon's Ring,” I have become increasingly interested in the study of animals for what they might teach us about man, and the study of man as an animal. I have become increasingly disenchanted with what the thinkers of the so-called Age of Enlightenment tell us about the nature of man, and with what the formal religions and doctrinaire political theorists tell us about the same subject."

"my interests outside my academic work were debating, tennis, and to a lesser extent, acting. I became intensely interested in astronomy and devoured the popular works of astronomers such as Sir Arthur Eddington and Sir James Jeans, from which I learnt that a knowledge of mathematics and physics was essential to the pursuit of astronomy. This increased my fondness for those subjects."