The Maths Queen with a quantum mission to mentor girls

Known in Ghana as the Queen of Maths, Dr Angela Tabiri is the first person in Africa to win the Big Internet Math Off competition – a great achievement for someone who is not ready to learn maths.

The 35-year-old Ghanaian “finds joy in answering questions and maths” and hopes that her 2024 success will open up the world of maths to other African women – who are traditionally not allowed to take the subject.

Sixteen mathematicians were invited to compete for the tongue-in-cheek title of “world’s funniest mathematician” – a public voting event started in 2018 by The Aperiodical blog.

The first winner was Dr Nira Chamberlain, the first black mathematician to be included in Britain’s Who’s Who and vice-president of the professional body, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

At the meeting they all compete against each other – so two in each game – then they go to the quarter-finals and semi-finals until the main game to decide who has explained their mathematical idea in the most enlightening way.

The interest of Dr. Tabiri is a quantum, or non-commutative, algebra, which he researches at the Ghana branch of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Objectives).

The plans started in South Africa and then expanded to Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon and Rwanda – to provide postgraduate education and research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Dr Tabiri is the education manager of the Girls in Mathematical Sciences Programme, a mentoring and support program for girls in secondary or high school in Ghana.

It was launched by Aims-Ghana in 2020 to “ensure we have a pipeline of young women who will lead research and innovation in mathematics – in academia and industry”.

Dr Tabiri said that the number of girls and boys who study mathematics at secondary school is the same but then they go down to university.

This is because, she says, female students think that when they do math, the only job they can do is to teach, because math is still considered a “boy’s subject” – and there are few female role models.

This is what Dr Tabiri wants to change.

But his mathematical journey was not straightforward.

He grew up in Ashaiman, one of the poor, densely populated areas of Tema, an industrial and port town an hour’s drive east of the capital, Accra.

Their home was cozy but noisy – they have four sisters – and Dr Tabiri often sought peace and quiet in the youth area to study.

She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her two sisters and study business management at university.

But his grades, although good, were not high enough – and he was accepted instead of maths and economics.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” says Dr Tabiri. “Numbers and puzzles fascinated me – but I didn’t think a career in mathematics was for me.”

In 2015, Dr Tabiri received his PhD scholarship from Glasgow University in Scotland. It was hard work, he says – and that’s when he had a last-minute encounter.

She went to see Hidden Numbers, a film about black American mathematicians who worked for the US space agency, NASA, in the 1950s, during the apartheid era in the US.

“It was amazing to see the story of these black women being told all over the world,” she recalls. “I had a lot of pain watching it.”

He was greatly inspired by Katherine Johnson, whose extraordinary mathematical and mathematical skills were crucial to the success of US space travel.

“Katherine Johnson worked very hard – and for a long time her work was hidden. She made me realize that I have to continue.

“If your work is not known now, it will be known in the future. It was a turning point for me.”

Ghana reached a historic milestone in 2024 when Dr Gloria Botchway became the first woman to graduate from the University of Ghana with a PhD in mathematics.

It was a journey full of challenges – including selling water and yams on the side of the road as a six-year-old.

Dr Tabiri is working to help other African girls and women from poor countries to follow their mathematical dreams through his non-profit organization FemAfricMaths.

Along with other volunteers, they provide tutoring to junior high school students in person and online.

She also posts on social media interviews she conducts with female mathematicians from around the world.

Dr Tabiri is also very interested in the possibilities of the increase in science and technology – for which mathematics is important.

I am proud that Ghana, with the support of Mexico, spearheaded the proposal to declare 2025 the UN International Year of Quantum Science and Technology – on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of modern quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics emerged from academia to reveal how the smallest particles—particles, energy, and light—interact to create the universe.

It led to the Internet, solar cells, and global satellite systems.

Researchers and major technology companies around the world – including China, the US, the UK, Australia and South Africa – are now racing to develop more advanced technologies, including quantum computers and advanced measurement and observation devices.

The hope is that complex problems will be solved at lightning speed – and there will be great innovations in areas such as medicine, environmental science, food production and cyber-security.

“There is a lot of discussion now – the pros and cons – the jobs that will be done,” says Dr Tabiri.

Africa’s growing population, already the world’s youngest, will become the world’s largest by 2040, according to the UN.

But this does not mean that we will get a job,” says Dr Tabiri.

He hopes to organize a “quantum road show” as a first step in introducing students to quantum science at an early age.

“We want young people to be interested in art and all the necessary skills when they learn,” he says.

The game will be based on a recent quantum computing course he conducted for high school girls studying at Aims-Ghana during the holidays.

The course discussed what it takes to build a supercomputer, its limitations – and the computational challenges it poses to current systems, such as cryptography.

Working with Unesco, Dr Tabiri will also hold a “Quantum Hackathon” during the week of July at Aims-Ghana for about 40 graduate students from various African countries.

“We want them to use their quantum technology to solve some of the problems we face, real problems,” says Dr Tabiri.

“It is very important that we position our young people for the next big change.”