Fadji Maina has become the first scientist from Niger to work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). Currently, she is the only African in Nasa.
“I will say to them to not give up to keep going because everyone would think people from Niger, or a young girl from Niger, would not be able to do this. But just believe in yourself and find an environment that will support you,” she said.
Ms Maina said she is the only African in Nasa:
“You get used to it also I think we need to have more people coming from different backgrounds to be able to solve the problems that we are looking at – because different people will have different perspectives.”
Biography
University of Strasbourg for her Master degree in Engineering and Environmental Sciences in 2013, before pursuing a PhD in Hydrology in 2016 in a collaboration between University of Strasbourg and CEA.She went on to continue her research at the Laboratory of Hydrology and Geochemistry of Strasbourg (CNRS) before going to Politecnico di Milano in Italy from 2017 to 2018. She joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in 2018, until September 2020 when she joined Goddard Space Flight Center as an Earth scientist, the first Nigerien woman to work for NASA