Susan Murabana, MSc
Susan Murabana, MSc is Cofounder and CEO at The Travelling Telescope Africa, President of the African Planetarium Association, and WSWA Board Member. She is also a United Nations Space4Women Mentor and serves on the board of the International Planetarium Association.
Read Susan Murabana: Inspiring Through Astronomy and ‘Star Safaris’ Bring Education and Awe to Rural Kenya.
The mission of the World Space Week Association (WSWA) is to strengthen the link between space and society through public education, participation, and dialogue on the future of space activity using World Space Week as a focus.
The Travelling Telescope is a social enterprise dedicated to promoting astronomy in Africa. Susan’s team takes their large portable telescopes and mobile planetarium to schools and public spaces, engaging students in astronomy. The initiative won the Europlanet Award for science engagement in 2020. The Travelling Telescope also partners with lodges educating and entertaining tourists about the beautiful Kenyan night skies.
They work with schools and use astronomy as a tool to inspire children into STEM subjects, visualizing the Earth as the floating biosphere seen from space. They encourage an equal number of girls to join our projects as they do boys. Susan feels she needs to mentor young girls into science as there are not many women like her especially in Africa doing what she does.
Astronomy encourages us to not only look out and see other planets but also to look at our own world and understand its processes.
One way they are demonstrating their approach to sustainability is through the way they have built their planetarium — a geodesic dome made entirely out of bamboo, called The Nairobi Bamboo Planetarium. Read The First Planetarium Under Kenyan Skies.
In 2013, Susan went to a party to watch a solar eclipse. While she was there, she met Daniel Chu Owen. They soon saw they both wanted to share their love of space with others. In 2014, Susan and Chu started the Travelling Telescope. They use astronomy to get kids excited about science and technology. Read An out-of-this-world tour of the night sky.
Read Unveiling The Universe And Building An Escape Room For Cancer Education: The 10 Science Engagement Winners and Breaking The Wall Of The Travelling Telescope.
Susan’s company is a youth partner of the Airbus Foundation through Airbus Little Engineers — a robotics space program targeting Kenyan school kids. They are working with students on Airbus Foundation Discovery Space (AFDS), a virtual program designed by Airbus in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Autodesk. The students design various objects — houses, airplanes, space suits, and rockets using 3D design programs like Tinkercad and Fusion-360. Read the Interview with the CEO and Co-founder of The Travelling Telescope, Susan Murabana.
Read Edinburgh University Installs A Special Telescope In Kenya’s Ileret initiated by Susan.
In 2001, Susan cofounded Cosmos Education Kenya and served as an Under African Skies Education Expedition team leader until 2006.
In 2002, she worked as a Marketing Executive and Programmer at FourTell eAfrica, specializing in supplying and developing integrated IT business solutions both to the private and public sectors for almost five years.
She continued between 2006 and 2014, as the Executive Director Africa at Hands-on Universe Africa and she successfully introduced a research-based astronomy education curriculum into Nairobi, Kenya’s secondary schools for the first time via the Hands-on Universe program. Susan organized and co-ordinated the first-ever international Teacher training for Hands-on Universe software in Kenya with U.S trainers via web video conferencing.
In 2008, she became the Country Leader for Kenya at the Space Generation Advisory Council and was Public Relations and Marketing Officer for Africa Astronomical Society between 2011 and 2014. She has also been the Country Leader and National Coordinator at Universe Awareness since 2008.
Susan earned her Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in Economics and Sociology in 2002 from The Catholic University of Eastern Africa. She earned her Master’s Degree of Science in Astronomy in 2010 from James Cook University.
Susan also serves as the President of the African Planetarium Association, is National Coordinator of Astronomers Without Borders, and is National Astronomy Education Coordinator. She has been featured on CNN African Voices, BBC, and other local and international media houses.
Read Meet Susan Murabana: The Architect of the First Planetarium in Kenya, Meet Susan Murabana, the astronomer bringing the cosmos to Kenyan youth, and My Hero Stories: Susan Murabana.
Read ‘I want to see the first African woman in space’: the Kenyan stargazer bringing astronomy to the people and An Interview with Susan Murabana.
Watch Susan Murabana — Astronomer, Global Hands On Universe, Susan Murabana: a star is born, and Kenya’s Susan Murabana explores the stars.
Listen to Lessons in awe and wonder from Kenya’s Travelling Telescope and The Nairobi Ideas Podcast: Meet Susan Murabana.
Visit her LinkedIn profile. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
