SRPS Role Model: Malala Yousafzai

“I know where I stand. If you stand with me, I ask you to seize every opportunity for girls’ education in the next year... We should not ask children to flee their homes to also give up their dreams, and we must recognize that young refugees are future leaders on whom we all depend for peace.”

Last month Malala Yousafzai become only the sixth person, and the youngest, to receive honorary Canadian citizenship, a title conferred on "foreigners of exceptional merit." Malala certainly qualifies as a young woman of exceptional merit! Through her bravery and dogged determination, she is actively creating a better world by advocating for girls' right to education worldwide, and is currently serving as a UN Messenger of Peace.

Most people have already heard Malala's story of being an 11 year old blogger for the BBC sharing stories about her life as a girl under Taliban occupation. In particular, she was outspoken about the need for education for girls, which had been banned. Although her identity was kept secret, the Taliban eventually discovered who she was and targeted her in an attempt to silence her. And they almost succeeded. Her shooting injuries were quite severe, but she was airlifted to the UK where she was able to receive extensive medical care.

The attempt on her life emboldened this brilliant and brave young woman. With her best-selling book, I am Malala [Amazon/Library], and the non-profit Malala Fund, she has made it a point to use her public platform to continue the call for at least 12 years of schooling for all girls around the world.

Prime minister Trudeau echoed the thoughts of many of her supporters in his speech at the ceremony. "Malala, your story is an inspiration to us all. For bravely lending your voice to so many, we thank you."

It is her remarkable bravery and her dedication to such an important cause that makes her a Self-Rescuing Princess Society role model. Young people around the world can see her and find inspiration to speak up and take action. Like Canadian student Sabina Haque said at an event prior to the ceremony, "It’s really nice to have someone like Malala — a young women, a woman of colour from a community where she was undermined for her gender — be able to rise above and stand up for girls and education."

The ceremony was held on April 12, 2017, in the Canadian House of Commons, where prime minister Trudeau presented her with a certificate of honorary citizenship and a Canadian flag. It had originally been slated for 2014, the same year she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but had to be postponed because of a tragic shooting of a soldier in Ottawa.

You can read more about the official ceremony in the Al Jazeera story: Malala Yousafzai made an honorary Canadian citizen

You can read about the reception she received in Ottawa in the National Observer story: Greeted by screaming fans, Malala Yousafzai becomes a Canadian

You can learn more about her by watching He Named Me Malala [Amazon]

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Nobel Women - Physiology or Medicine

In honor of the 2016 Nobel Prizes announced recently, this post is the third in my series of Nobel Women, highlighting the women who've won a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. You can also read my previous posts about the women who've won a Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry.

There have been significantly more Nobel Prizes awarded to women for their work in physiology and medicine than for physics or chemistry combined -- 12 in total. Perhaps this has something to do with more women being able to enter the world of medicine and medical research than in other scientific fields. Or perhaps it is simply a matter of there having been more scientist overall working on understanding physiological mechanisms and searching for answers to medicine's biggest questions.

What I found most interesting while researching the work of these women is how each scientist's discovery laid the foundation for the next scientist's research, and that there is a clear line of women standing on the shoulders of their female predecessors in the quest for scientific knowledge.

Who were these women and what made their research noteworthy to the Nobel Committee?

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Nobel Women - Chemistry

In honor of the 2016 Nobel Prizes announced this last week, this post is the second in my series of Nobel Women, highlighting the women who've won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. You can also read my previous post about the women who've won a Nobel Prize in Physics.

There have been twice as many Nobel Prizes awarded to women for their work in chemistry than for physics. While that might sound impressive, it's really not when you consider that only two women have received a Nobel Prize for physics, meaning that only four have gone to women for chemistry. And even less so when you realize one remarkable woman appears on both lists.

Who were these women and what made their research noteworthy to the Nobel Committee?

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Nobel Women - Physics

The 2016 Nobel Prizes are being announced this week, and so far it's still a dude-fest. So, while we don't have any new women Nobel winners yet to celebrate, I figure maybe it's time to celebrate some of the women from history who've taken home the gold medal.

The post about women who've won the Nobel Prize in Physics is depressingly short. In the 121 years since Alfred Nobel created his award, only TWO women have won for their work in the field of physics. The most recent was Maria Geoppert Mayer, in 1963. And before that? It was Marie Curie in 1903.

Sixty years between the first and the second. And nearly that many years between the second and today. The snarky part of me wonders if we'll actually have to wait again until 2023, and for someone named Maria?

But seriously. I know it's still incredibly tough for women to find academic success in Physics, for a multitude of reasons. Here's hoping that starts to change quickly. In the meantime, we can celebrate Marie and Maria and encourage other young women to follow in their stead.

Marie Curie
Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 along with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

Marie was the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize, and it almost didn't happen. The prize committee had originally only intended to give the award to the two male scientists. It wasn't until Magnus Goesta Mittag-Leffler, himself a scientist and an advocate for women in science, made a formal complaint that they included Marie Curie in the nomination.

Maria Goeppert Mayer
Maria Goeppert Mayer won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 along with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure."

Maria, like many other female scientists married to male scientists at the time, did much of her important work in unpaid or part-time positions because of anti-nepotism rules at most major universities. Despite this ridiculous limitation, she still maintained a stellar record of research and publication, and developed a mathematical model for the structure of nuclear shells, explaining the reasons behind her "magic number" of nucleons that result in stable configurations.

Like Marie, she earned her Nobel by applying her brilliant mind through diligence research in order to answer the age-old question of "why?" Fortunately for her, the committee did not need to be convinced she deserved it. Even they could recognize magnificent contribution to science.

Perhaps as more women are seeking advanced degrees in physics, we'll start to see more women winning Nobel Prizes. One can hope.

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