Meet Charlyne Smith, First Black to Bag PhD in Nuclear Engineering in US Varsity
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Meet Charlyne Smith, First Black to Bag PhD in Nuclear Engineering in US Varsity
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
Charlyne Smith, a 27-year-old American woman, has achieved an exceptional accomplishment at the University of Florida, becoming the first black person to earn a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the institution.
Smith, who is now a Senior Nuclear Energy Analyst at the Breakthrough Institute, views her achievement as a feat that will open doors for marginalized groups.
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“It means more options, more open doors for marginalized groups, including Black women and men, to create and innovate in the nuclear energy space to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, including climate change,” Smith said.
Charlyne Smith hails from St. Catherine, Jamaica in North America.
In 2012, she moved to the United States to pursue a career in science and technology. She attended Coppin State University in Baltimore and graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Mathematics.
INCNews247 learnt during an alumni event at Coppin State University, Charlyne spoke with nuclear scientist Dr. Nickie Peters and became interested in Nuclear Engineering.
She believed that pursuing this field could bring about immediate change in countries that needed it. Charlyne then went on to study at the University of Florida, where she made history as the first black woman to earn a PhD from the university.
Charlyne plans to use her knowledge and expertise to help replace fossil fuel energy sources in the Caribbean with clean energy sources, such as nuclear energy.
“In doing so, we not only solve energy instability, especially during extreme weather events, but we’ll also get closer to global carbon neutrality goals,” she explained.
She added, “My strategy is to start with Jamaica because it houses the only nuclear reactor in the Caribbean. Although it is a research reactor, its existence demonstrates experience and technical competence in the nuclear engineering space”.
Charlyne is a co-founder of a non-profit organization called Empowering Garrison Girls (EGGs) whose mission is to fill the need for a global transformation to reduce gender and economic inequalities by targeting young girls living in Jamaican garrison communities.
“Early exposure to a wide range of STEM disciplines is essential for solving current and future world problems. I plan to help diversify the engineering disciplines by first developing a summer engineering pilot program for high school students in Jamaica. The hope is that the success of these types of educational programs will help to create a blueprint for designing STEM-based secondary institutions,” she explained.
