Dr. Cerene Rathilal
Nominee's Province:
Kwazulu-natal
Project Name/Description:
University of KwaZulu Natal (KZN), Senior Lecturer at the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science
Despite the notion that mathematics is a challenging subject, Dr. Cerene Rathilal is one of the few women in South Africa who has completed her PhD in Pointfree Topology, which earned her prestigious awards such as the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship, Canon Collins Trust Scholarship, Recipient of the 2022 Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans Award, among others. Having been born and bred in Durban in a school with limited resources did not deter her from pursuing a career in Mathematics; the love for numbers grew. “The lack of female role models in mathematics was one of my earliest challenges, and it often meant battling feelings of isolation in my field,” she said. When she realised that only a few women were enrolling for Math or in academia, she started educational projects meant to support women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). She founded STEM MentHER, which operates in 7 South African universities.
