Rabia Salihu Sa'idpronunciationⓘ[a] (born on April 21, 1963) is a Nigerian physicist, professor of atmospheric and space-weather physics, and a researcher at Bayero University Kano.
She is an advocate and mentor of Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and is a facilitator for the British Council's Active Citizens' Programme.
[citation needed] Rabia Sa'id was born in the year 1963 in Wangara, a town in Gezawa local government area of Kano State, Northern Nigeria,[5] where girls have few education opportunities, many marry in their teens, and women are expected to stay at home.
[8] Two of her children needed medical care (one of them was born with club foot and another with sickle-cell anemia), which added to her personal challenge to obtain higher education degrees.
[10] In 2002, on the International Fellowships Program (IFP) of the Ford Foundation, she studied for an M.Sc degree in Environment and Development from the University of Reading, United Kingdom.
[12] In January 2013, she was made an African Scientific Institute (ASI) Fellow in Physics,[13][14] which is an honorary association and think tank of academics, researchers, and business people.
[12][e] According to Rabia Salihu, she is active in STEM outreach because there is group pressure and obstacles that girls, particularly those in northern Nigeria, must overcome to pursue degrees and careers in these fields.
[9] She received the award for her work on Nigerian environmental challenges,[7] which was presented on 14 February 2015 at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Jose, California.