Last week Dr Lee-Anne McKinnell, a joint appointment of the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO) where she is the Manager of the Space Physics Group, and Rhodes University where she is a Research Associate in Physics and Electronics, won an inaugural African Union (AU) Women Scientist Regional Award in Addis Ababa. She was awarded the Basic Science, Technology and Innovation Sector Prize for Women Scientists in the Southern African region.
“There is a strong urge for Africa to quickly mobilize its scientific resources and competencies to champion programmes that promote access to science and technology by all, strengthen research capacities, and increase the use, and generation of scientific knowledge for the development of the continent,” says the AU Commission.
The African Union Scientific Awards Programme is designed to celebrate the achievements of African scientists on national, regional and continental levels and to promote all efforts to transform scientific research into entrepreneurship, attract investments to Africa, and create research centres of excellence. One of the objectives is to encourage the scientific community and the public to participate in addressing critical problems in Africa. The programme aims to achieve this by raising the profile of the science and technology sector and building a scientific culture amongst African citizens.
In total five prizes were awarded, covering three African regions. Two were awarded for basic science and three for life sciences. Dr McKinnell’s award is intended to promote participation of African women in science, technology and innovation through equal opportunity and recognition. A firm criterion for these awards, therefore, is the applicability of the scientific work to Africa’s challenges and its patentability. The ceremony was attended by the AU executive, a delegation from the European Union (EU), including the EU commissioner, and many diplomats, among them the South African ambassador to Ethiopia.
When she is not travelling internationally, Dr McKinnell spends her time between Rhodes and the HMO and is a high productivity Space Physicist who has done a lot to develop young scientists from African countries. Besides already having supervised 10 MSc students and one PhD student, all of whom have graduated, she is currently supervising a further five PhDs and five MSc students.
Additionally, Dr Mckinnell regularly involves herself in a wide range of outreach projects. These include short practical electronics courses at local schools, teaching on academic development programmes for previously disadvantaged scholars, and participating in the annual SciFest in Grahamstown. She also organises and leads an annual Rhodes undergraduate field trip to the Western Cape aimed at exposing students to possible employers of physicists and encouraging them to continue in physics to the postgraduate level, as well as explaining how important physics is to Africa. She has also assisted with outreach activities aimed at the advancement and promotion of science to learners, teachers and students.
“Dr McKinnell has an impressive research output record, and is a highly successful mentor of research students (notably from designated groups). She is an acknowledged national and international expert in the fields of Ionospheric Physics and Space Weather, and is widely knowledgeable in the areas of Astrophysics and Space Science,” said Dr Peter Clayton, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research & Development. “Her (and her students’) research outputs have covered the topics of Ionospheric Physics, particularly modeling using ionosonde data, Space Weather effects on the Earth’s Upper Atmosphere, Non-linear modeling using neural networks, High Frequency Propagation and Prediction, and Radio wave communication through the ionosphere and space.”
Her research activities have resulted in some 43 contributions to conferences at a national and international level and another 43 papers published in respected academic journals and conference proceedings.
“In addition to her role as a Research Physicist and Manager of the Space Physics Group, Dr McKinnell has for a number of years organized and run a highly successful series of summer and winter schools, for the development of emerging researchers in the region. Her planning and policy influence covers a number of influential Boards in the field of Space Physics, including the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) working group, Chair of the Ionosonde Network Advisory Group (INAG), Commission G (Ionospheric Radio and Propagation) member of the national committee of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), and the steering committee of the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP).”
“I have always had a fascination with radio,” said Dr McKinnell, describing how as a young girl she would spend hours building radios. This childhood fascination led naturally to her interest in space physics and subsequent specialisation in ionospheric physics. The latter is essentially radio science whereby certain regions of the Earth’s atmosphere are measured and models developed to assist with radio communication, a necessary tool in the areas of disaster management, emergency communications, aviation and navigation to mention a few. “What we are interested in is space weather and its effects on the ionosphere,” said Dr McKinnell. “In turn we measure how this affects man’s technology.”
Training students from across Africa in space physics, Dr McKinnell is making an important contribution to enhancing the capacity for Africa’s contribution to space physics internationally. “I believe very strongly that Africa can take control of its own science and make a contribution to our global understanding of space physics,” she said. “One of my big dreams for Africa is that we will one day have our own space weather operation centre that will give African scientists access to the global community.” Currently Africa is the only continent that does not have such a centre.
Of the award, Dr McKinnell, who is dedicated to her research and most accustomed to beavering away in her own workspace, said that at first she was a bit stunned. Recovering from the initial shock, she described the “big deal” which the AU has made of the awards as reinforcing of her beliefs in her work: “The recognition of my work is enormous – it has been an inspiring experience that gives me added energy to pursue my work further,” she said. “I hope that this award will also contribute to raising the profile of the work done at both institutions with which I am associated.”?
Dr McKinnell further attributed the supportive environment at Rhodes, in which she has consistently been given “space and the room to grow” as well as welcome “advice when I have needed it”, to helping her achieve what she has in her science.