MORE of our students need to be encouraged to take up STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects. One way to do this is to expose them to stories/memoirs of great scientists. Hopefully, they will be inspired to adopt some of these scientists as their icons and role models.
Iconic scientists, past and present, are frequently mentioned in scientific texts, magazines and also in the media. But most of them, like Albert Einstein, Issac Newton, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, Nikola Tesla, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku, are from the West.