The Jamaican born Charlyne Smith, who is a former student at St. Catherine High School recently made history after earning a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Florida (UF).
The incredible achievements of Charlyne Smith has been recognized by many prominent people including the Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness. He wrote, “Congratulations to our very own Charlyne Smith, the first black woman to earn a PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Florida”.
Smith was inspired by her grandfather to use her intelligence and drive to help “make Jamaica a better place. She dreamed of becoming a scientist and inventor so she could help to resolve some of the basic problems faced by families like hers, who struggled to access electrical power and other reliable infrastructure.
Prior to attending University of Florida, , she was a student at Copping State University (CSU) in Baltimore, Maryland where she graduated in 2017 with a degree in chemistry and mathematics.
While at Copping, the First Black Woman PhD holder, studied fruits with dark pigments to create dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), hypothesizing that these cells would absorb enough ultraviolet radiation (UV) to power large devices.
She discovered this was not a feasible path toward providing reliable power to third-world countries in the immediate future. She therefore met with Dr. Nickie Peters.
After the meeting with a the nuclear scientist – at an alumni event at CSU, Smith moved on from solar research to pursue a career in the nuclear field, becoming convinced that nuclear technology has the potential to make real change happen immediately.
She received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in 2018 to study at UF’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
After traveling to the United States to pursue academic opportunities in solar energy research, Smith realized the “severity of living conditions in Jamaica.”
Pointing to the severity of living conditions in Jamaica, Smith stated in an interview with Jamaicans.com that the disparity between the reliable energy available in the US compared with the unreliable energy access in Jamaica had motivated her to ensure that “the next generation of Jamaican children will never know a day without access to clean water and reliable electricity”.
She also added “For me, nuclear is the obvious immediate solution while renewable research takes some time to reach its maximum potential,” Adding “I do this for the survival of countries like mine” .
