Honoring the Life of Sameera Moussa: Egypt’s First Female Nuclear Scientist (1917-52)

by Shahinda Abdalla

During the first half of the 20th century, the era of two world wars and a time in history where advancements in science and technology were used for warfare, a relatively unknown young Egyptian nuclear scientist named Sameera Moussa set out on a life mission to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Born in Gharbia on March 3, 1917, Moussa lost her mother as a young child to cancer. After the death of her mother, she moved to Cairo with her father where she grew up and attended both primary and secondary school. Despite achieving very high grades in secondary education that would’ve permitted her to study engineering, she insisted on joining the Faculty of Sciences at Cairo University. In 1939, she graduated with a BSc in Radiology with First Class Honors after researching the effects of X-ray radiation on various materials. Dr. Moustafa Mousharafa, the first dean of the faculty saw great promise in Moussa and helped her to become a lecturer in the faculty even before she had completed her doctoral degree. She became the first woman to work and hold a post at Cairo University and the first to obtain a PhD in Atomic Radiation.

During the mid-1940s, Moussa was sent to the UK to finish her PhD, where she made two contributions that continue to impact our lives to this very day. First, she came up with the historic equation that would break the atoms of cheap metals such as copper — a discovery that would help in making the medical applications of nuclear technology, such as X-rays cheaper. One of her aims was to make nuclear treatments of cancer accessible and affordable. She was known to say, “My wish is for nuclear treatment of cancer to be as available and as cheap as Aspirin.” Much of her research on nuclear energy focused on medical applications which included shortening patient X-ray exposure times and making X-ray procedures more mobile and flexible. Throughout her life, Moussa volunteered at many hospitals to help treat cancer patients and though Moussa was interested in promoting the medical advancements nuclear energy could offer, she was also very keen to warn of the dangers of its use in warfare and thus the second important thing she did whilst in the UK was organize the Atomic Energy for Peace Conference. This conference was sparked by her very deep concern regarding the developments she saw in atomic weapons and so she put out a call to the international community under the slogan “Atoms for Peace” which was later adopted by President Dwight Eisenhower in a 1953 speech. This speech would go on to create the ideological foundations for organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which both aim to promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy and achieve nuclear disarmament around the world to this very day. One of the recommendations of the conference Moussa organized at the time was to create committees and advisory councils to oversee the industry and provide protection against nuclear safety hazards such as the use of atomic weapons.

In the 1950s, Moussa was invited to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship in recognition of being a pioneer in the field of atomic research. She was hosted by the University of California, Berkeley and allowed to visit the country’s secret nuclear facilities. This was very controversial and raised a stir in scientific and security circles in the United States as Moussa was the first foreign person to visit these types of facilities. She was offered a US citizenship alongside several opportunities to work and live there, but she is reported to have turned them all down. Sadly, Moussa never made it back home to Egypt and died at the very young age of 35 in a mysterious car crash on her way to a nuclear facility she had been invited to. Following her death in 1953, she was honored by the Egyptian Army and in 1981, was awarded the Order of Science and Arts, First Class, by then President Anwar Sadat. In her very short life, Sameera Moussa advocated for our rights to access health technology and raised awareness about the peaceful use of nuclear energy. She achieved great feats in both leaving our world forever changed and grateful for her life.