If you express surprise that her native South Africa has a space program that inspired a young woman to become a materials engineer working on aerospace composite materials, Phylis Makurunje does not hesitate in her response. “South Africa is one ambitious country,” she says. “Ambitious in that it’s serious about research and development and how it plays in the ecosystem of the economy and industry.”

Her own ambitions led her to pursue a Ph.D. in materials engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, working with ceramics for aerospace applications. After completion, she moved to Wales to join the Nuclear Futures Institute at Bangor University as a post-doctoral research officer, where she explores how aerospace materials and nuclear energy can converge.