Trinidad-born Alexandra Amon has boldly gone where few women have gone before, crossing one of the final frontiers of a male-dominated field. The 21-year-old Maraval native, who won a national open scholarship in 2009 at her alma mater, St Joseph's Convent, Port-of- Spain, is now pursuing her Masters in Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian in a telephone interview yesterday, Amon described how her interest in astrophysics developed, even while she was at secondary school."I really enjoyed Physics and Mathematics when I was in St Joseph's," she said."One of my teachers told me about a Physics summer camp, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, and she told me to apply."I did and was accepted and they paid for all my expenses to go to the theoretical research school for physics."I went there and fell in love with it and decided that that was what I wanted to do."
One of her inspirations in the field is Particle Physics professor Peter Higgs, who last year discovered a new particle, named the Higgs-Boson in his honour. Scientists believe the new particle played a vital role in the formation of the universe and of human life, giving mass to matter. Amon said she met Higgs at Edinburgh University where he used to teach.Amon said there were very few female astrophysicists at her university programme where the ratio was one female to every ten males.
She also did not know of any Caribbean astrophysicists.Amon's older sister, Diva, a deep-sea biologist, has already made significant impact beyond our shores. She was part of a team that made an historic discovery recently of a whale skeleton on the ocean floor near Antarctica. It was significant that both of them were involved in careers that were not traditional in T&T and her field in particular was not common among females.
She said she hoped her example would lead others to explore different options.When asked what words of encouragement she had to give to parents if their children wanted to follow her footsteps, Amon said they will have to be prepared for a very demanding, difficult and male-dominated field.