Joyful Elma Mdhluli

I am Joyful Elma Mdhluli, the 4th of five children in my family and currently the only one to have made it to University.

Born and raised in Bushbuckridge Mpumalanga, I relocated at age 11 to a small little town called Kampersrus. Completed my Primary school at Laerskool Mariepskop and matriculated in 2010 from Merensky High School. I completed my undergraduate degree, honours and Masters by distinction from the University of the Witwatersrand. I am currently a Doctoral candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand under the School of Physics. Truth be told, I didn’t know I wanted to be a Physicist until I started doing my Masters degree.

I enjoy travelling (which is great for me because I get to do a lot of that currently), trying new things and meeting new people. I am a generally happy person. My favourite physics equation is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, I may be uncertain about a lot of things in my life but I’m definitely certain about the love I have for physics. The plan is to stay in academia and inspire more young female students to pursue a career not only in Physics (or STEM) but in academia as well.