My experiment is about the accurate determination of the
shape of selenium-70 at the first 2+ states
What we’re studying here is a radioactive element
which decays to arsenic-70 and then back to germanium
So germanium is quite stable and you can access it easily
We’re going to be using a technique
called Coulomb Excitation
Back home in South Africa we are able
to produce stable beams only
so unfortunately we cannot perform the experiment at home
Hence we came to CERN to try and perform
the experiment here
South Africa became a member of ISOLDE last year
and this was the first experiment led by an
African institution at CERN
For us
it’s a great motivation to get things done properly
As you can see we have lots of students coming
It’s a great excitement for them to be able to be part of making history
It’s so amazing to be at CERN
As I stand right now
I really want to do great things
I’m so motivated
I want to do more
I’m hungry for knowledge
The experiment is important for the science
we’re doing very interesting state of the art nuclear physics
but the other very important aspect of the experiment
is the opportunity that it’s brought for young people
to come from South Africa to get a first opportunity
for South Africans to lead an experiment
in collaboration with us from York
here at CERN
I’m so proud of myself to be the only
women on this experiment
and I feel like I’m representing all other women from Africa
and I would like to motivate other women
as well to come to science
to come to physics
The first thing it tells people in South Africa
is that if we can do it
a historically disadvantaged institution can do it
any university in South Africa can do it
This hopefully creates a domino effect
which will tell everyone that anything is possible
