South Africa is making strides in the field of physics, as well as steady progress in developing and appointing black researchers in the field, but is lagging way behind in gender equality, a study has shown.

“Over the period 2005 to 2015, the impact of South African physics publications has risen from just below the world average to more than twice the world average of all physics publications, not just nuclear physics,” Department of Science and Technology (DST) deputy director-general Thomas Auf der Heyde said earlier this month.

He told a conference marking ten years of collaboration between South Africa and the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, or CERN, that the field of physics as a whole was well developed in South Africa, and had notched up a wide international footprint.

“In 2005, [fewer than] 1% of our top papers were in the top 1% of the world. Ten years later, 4% of our top publications are in the top 1% of world publications, so the trend of the impact of South African physics internationally has been on a very strong upward curve.”

Auf der Heyde said the overall standing of work in applied, fluid, plasma, atomic and mathematical physics remained unchanged. He said it was highly likely that the relative strengthening of nuclear-related physics was assosociated with the partnership that had been established between South African physics and CERN, as well as its partnership with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, in Russia.

The deputy director-general said there were far more black researchers in the physics field these days, which was a welcome boost.

“From 2005 to 2016, the racial demographics ratio changed significantly. It’s not where it needs to be, but there was a very positive improvement in this period.”

However, the physics field was heavily skewed towards men.

“This is a serious challenge. We absolutely have to improve the gender demographics of physics in South Africa. It is ethically and morally correct to do so. It’s also absurd that you can think you can build the best physics by ignoring the majority of women,” he said.

The findings showed that 88% of academic papers in physics in South Africa between 2005 and 2015 were authored by men.

iThemba LABS senior researcher Zinhle Buthelezi said progress had been slow, although she was starting to see changes.

“Physics has always been regarded as a male-dominated field. We are trying to break that stereotype,” she told Engineering News.

She said a change in attitude should start at grassroots level – in the classroom and the laboratory at school.

“We have a lot of work to do to inspire young girls to consider doing physics. We need to start by using examples and experiments that girls can relate to,” said Buthelezi.

“We also need to encourage girls to do hands-on stuff. The idea that a male can do better than you on hands-on work is crippling. Girls need to know that it is possible.”

Buthelezi said it had been incredibly rewarding working in the field of physics through South Africa’s collaboration with CERN.

“We are involved in cutting-edge research at the frontier of physics. We are able to contribute not only to South Africa but also to the world.”

While South African physics has a very strong international footprint, Auf der Heyde said, there was a comparative absence of cooperation within the African continent. The DST was working to change this.

Auf der Heyde said trends showed that nuclear and particle and field physics were very prominent in South African research, as were fields such as astronomy and astrophysics.

“We need to ask ourselves if we want to drive this development or pull other areas of physics in a similar direction.”