Mazlan Othman

Mazlan Binti Othman ( born December 11, 1951 in Seremban ) is a Malaysian astrophysicist who has served in several important positions in their home country, presided over by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna.

Beginnings and training

Othman visited the boarding Tunku Kurshiah College in Seremban. Your mathematical talent was the cause of participation in a scientific course. Even though her family encouraged her to become a doctor, she used a service provided by the Colombo Plan free place at the University of Otago in New Zealand for a degree in physics, which she completed in 1975. After working as a teacher at the National University of Malaysia, she returned to Otago to his doctorate as the first woman since the founding of the University in 1869 in physics.

Career

Othman returned as the first astrophysicist Malaysia back to their home country and devoted himself to the construction of an astrophysical training course at the National University and the promotion of the public interest in astronomy and to the questions of the universe. In addition, she was a semester at the Japanese Kiso Observatory worked as a researcher.

The Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad they put 1990 as Head of the Department of planetariums in the Office of the Prime Minister. In this capacity, she oversaw the creation of the National Planetarium ( Planetarium Negara ) in Kuala Lumpur. After the opening of the planetarium in 1993, Othman was Director General of the new Department of the scientific exploration of space at the Malaysian government with which she brought a program for the development of microsatellites on the way. In 1994 she was awarded a full professorship.

In November 1999, Kofi Annan appointed Othman as Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA ), Vienna. At the request of Mahathir, she returned in July 2002 back to Malaysia to serve there for five years as founding director of the Malaysian Space Agency Angkasa. Othman caused there to launch the first Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. Ban Ki -moon sat Othman in December 2007, again as a Director of OOSA. In the OOSA she is responsible for, among other things, international cooperation in space, avoiding collisions and space debris, use in space befindlicher platforms of remote sensing for the launch of a far-sighted approach to the earth, the coordination of space- legal issues between the countries as well as the defense from low Earth asteroids.

In September 2010 it was reported in various places that the United Nations Othman plan to appoint a contact person for aliens. The basis of this news, it seems that Othman has noted, the United Nations should strive to coordinate contacts with aliens, if it ever come to them. Your plans to participate in a Committee of the Royal Society in October 2010 under the theme " Towards a scientific and societal agenda on extra terrestrial life" ( " Before the birth of sound scientific and social principles of action concerning extraterrestrial life " ), this seems to have rumors intensified. A spokesman for the United Nations a report must be immediately dismissed as absurd and asserted that there were no plans to extend the mandate of the OOSA. Othman himself wrote in an e -mail to the British newspaper The Guardian: " It sounds really cool but I have to deny it. " ( " It sounds really cool, but I have to deny. " )

Private

Othman is married to the geologists Ibrahim Komoo and has two children with him.

Honors

• 2009 The Institute of Physics awarded Othman for " their work in terms of astronomical education in Malaysia and its pioneering role in the exploration of space at national and international level, " the medal by the President.