Dr Angela Tabiri is the first African to win The Big Internet Math Off competition and wants other African girls to follow in her footsteps. Tabiri, also known as the maths queen in Ghana, “finds joy in solving puzzles and mathematical questions,” she told the BBC.
African women have been discouraged from studying maths, so Tabiri hopes she can inspire them. Her passion is quantum, or non-commutative, algebra, and she conducts research at the Ghana branch of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Aims).
Aims was founded in South Africa and eventually moved to Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, and Rwanda to offer graduate training and research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Dr Tabiri is also the academic manager for the Girls in Mathematical Sciences Programme, a mentoring and support scheme for high or secondary school girls in Ghana. Aims set up a Mathematical Sciences Programme, a mentoring and support scheme for high or secondary school girls in Ghana, where Dr Tabiri is the academic manager.
Why does Angela want to teach girls quantum?
Dr. Tabiri told the BBC that the number of boys and girls studying maths at high school is approximately the same until they reach university level. Maths is still seen as a boy’s subject, and there’s an assumption that female students will only be able to land teaching roles.
This is why Dr Tabiri wants to help other African girls and women from low socio-economic backgrounds achieve their maths dreams through her FemAfricMaths non-profit organization. She is very enthusiastic about the potential of quantum science and technology, where maths plays a big role.
Ghana, with the help of Mexico, led the proposals that declared 2025 the UN International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. It’s the same year as the 100th anniversary of the discovery of modern quantum mechanics.
“There are lots of conversations now – the advantages and disadvantages – the jobs that will be created,” says Dr Tabiri. But she adds: “But that doesn’t mean that we will get the job.”
She wants to arrange “quantum road show” an an initial step into presenting school children to quantum science at a much younger age than she was.
Image: BBC
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