Today, January 14 is exactly seven years after the first National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ) mistress passed on.
Madam Marian Ewurama Addy was not just the first NSMQ mistress, but the first woman professor of science, specifically biochemistry, at the University of Ghana, Legon.
She was quiz mistress from 1993 till 2000, before handing over to her predecessor, Eureka Emefa Adomako.
“When in 1993/94, during the planning of a televised quiz programme on science, I was asked to be the Quiz Mistress, I could not say no,” she wrote in her memoir, ‘Rewards: An Autobiography.’
“I was interested in females becoming scientists and this was an opportunity to invite the young ones to become scientists…I thought that this was a most effective way of being a role model,” she added.
In recognition of her contribution to promoting the study of Science and Mathematics among girls through the NSMQ, Prof. Addy was named the Marketing Woman of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana in 1995.
Now, the NSMQ is chaired by Dr Kaufmann after she was recommended by Dr Adomako.