Photo by SooPhye, accessed via Options

INTRODUCTION

Mazlan binti Othman is Malaysia’s first astrophysicist. She has helped design the astrophysics curriculum in Malaysia, pioneered expanding Malaysia’s participation in space exploration, and contributed immensely to raising public awareness of space science on both national and international scales. Throughout her career, Dr. Othman has served at many roles, including Professor Emeritus at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Director General of the National Space Agency (ANGKASA) of Malaysia, and many others.

 

EARLY LIFE

Dr. Othman was born in 1951 in Malaysia.¹ She started going to school in the year of Malaysia’s independence, 1957, when the entire generation in Malaysia were strongly encouraged to go into sciences over any other subjects. Although she was interested in English literature and arts, Dr. Othman was compelled to enroll in the pure science track of her school’s curriculum because she did well in sciences and math.² Having gone into pure sciences, Dr. Othamn became intrigued by physics. In school, she would ask questions that her teachers did not have an answer for, such as “If the nucleus is made of protons and particles that have the same charges repel, why doesn’t the nucleus rip apart?”³ Led by her interests, Dr. Othamn studied physics at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand on a Colombo Plan Scholarship,⁴ and discovered her passion for astrophysics, a field in physics that brought her back to her love for arts.⁵ After college, Othman went on to pursue a PhD in astrophysics also at University of Otago, and obtained her degree in 1981⁶ as the first woman awarded a doctorate from the Physics Department since the founding of the university.⁷

 

WORK

In the same year (1981), Dr. Othamn returned to Malaysia and became a lecturer at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).⁸ As the first astrophysicist in the country,⁹ she established undergraduate and post-graduate courses in astronomy, introduced space science into Malaysian school curriculum, and actively promoted public awareness of astronomy, all of which led to the establishment of the Planetarium Division.¹⁰ Dr. Othman was seconded to the Prime Minister’s Department in 1990 to set up and head the Planetarium Division, which subsequently became the Space Science Studies Division in 1993.¹¹ She was appointed by UKM as Professor of Astrophysics in 1994.¹²

Photo accessed via New Straits Times

 

In 1999, Dr. Othman was appointed Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna, Austria. In July 2002, Dr. Othman returned to Malaysia to become the founding Director General of the National Space Agency (ANGKASA). In this capacity, she established the National Observatory in Langkawi and National Space Centre in Selangor. She headed the National Angkasawan (Astronaut) Programme, which launched the first Malaysian to the International Space Station in 2007. In addition, she was responsible for the launch of Malaysia Remote Sensing Satellites: TiungSAT and RazakSAT. She attended the Advanced Management Programme (AMP169) at Harvard Business School in 2005.¹³

 

National Observatory in Langkawi. Photo accessed via Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA)

 

             Malaysian Remote Sensing Satellites TiungSAT (left) and RazakSAT (right). Photos accessed via PeKhabar and Airport Technology (Image courtesy of Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn. Bhd (ASTB))

 

Dr. Othman resumed her post as Director of UNOOSA in December 2007 upon retirement from the Malaysian Civil Service. She was appointed as the Deputy Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV) in June 2009, and she retired from the United Nations in December 2013. Dr. Othman was appointed as the Project Director, Mega Science 3.0 at the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) from 2014 to 2016. She became Emeritus Professor at UKM in 2015 and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Space Policy Institute of George Washington University from 2015 to 2016. Dr. Othman was elected as a Senior Fellow of ASM in 2016. She was the Director of the International Science Council (ISC) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) from 2017 to 2021.¹⁴

 

HONORS

In 2009, Dr. Othman received the President’s Medal from the Institute of Physics “In recognition for her work in developing astronomy education in Malaysia and her leading national and international role in space science, through her setting up of the Malaysian Space Agency and as Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs”. ¹⁵ In 2013, Dr. Othman received the Polar Star award from the Austrian Space Forum.¹⁶

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bakar, Zarina. “Professor Emeritus Datuk Dr. Mazlan Othman Discusses Science and the Future.” Perdana Focus, 2015. 

Ean, Tan Gim. “Malaysia’s First Astrophysicist Professor Emerita Tan Sri Dr Mazlan Othman Talks Space Exploration.” Options, January 24, 2023. https://www.optionstheedge.com/topic/people/malaysias-first-astrophysicist-professor-emerita-tan-sri-dr-mazlan-othman-talks-space.

 “Mazlan Binti Othman.” Asia Research News, September 14, 2023. https://www.asiaresearchnews.com/content/mazlan-binti-othman.

“Mazlan Binti Othman.” International Astronautical Federation. Accessed December 1, 2024. https://www.iafastro.org/biographie/mazlan-binti-othman.html.

“Polar Star Award – The Austrian Space Award ®.” Austrian Space Forum (OeWF), September 22, 2024. https://oewf.org/en/about-the-oewf/polar-star-award/.

​​President’s medal recipients | institute of physics. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://www.iop.org/about/awards/presidents-medal-recipients.

“Secretary-General Appoints Mazlan Othman Director of Office for Outer Space Affairs.” United Nations : Information Service Vienna, November 26, 1999. https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/pressrels/1999/bio533.html.