Meet Kenya’s Fridah Mokaya; First Black Female to Attain PhD in Nuclear Physics from University of Connecticut


By Mukurima Muriuki


You might think that “coming from nowhere with no connections” might stack against you, but you could say it worked in my favor. I can now proudly say my name is Dr. Fridah Mogoi Mokaya, of course the “Dr” being the most recent addition to my name.













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I was the only black Physics PhD female (student) in my department and honestly, I did not focus so much on this, so I never quite felt any different. I had very supportive colleagues who made graduate school awesome.

My research was in the field of Experimental Nuclear and Hadronic Physics. In the simplest terms, we use the nucleus as a “laboratory” to study fundamental interactions. So why is all this important? Well, it’s because it enables us to understand the fundamental building blocks of nature.

There are so many things you can do with a Nuclear Physics degree.  I should also note that Nuclear Physics is a very wide field but some of the applications are Nuclear Medicine, Forensic studies, Nuclear Power et al. One can also transfer the skills they acquire into different fields such as data science, finance, biomedical research … so many options

There is also the academia realm, where one can opt to teach.

I want everyone to know that anyone can achieve anything you want in life. You just must reach for the stars and trust in God, for He makes things beautiful in His time. My greatest wish is that there is someone out there motivated to keep going and follow their dreams.  Challenges along the way should propel you to keep going and not discourage you.

If I could influence more women to pursue STEM related subjects, then I will be the happiest person.