Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM)
Computational Scientist
Computer-based scientific modelling
What this life looks like
You use computers to simulate and understand the world. Computational Scientists develop the algorithms and software that model complex systems — from climate and weather to drug interactions to fluid dynamics to economic behaviour. It is the third pillar of science alongside theory and experiment.
What she actually does
You develop mathematical models of complex systems, write high-performance computing code to run large simulations, analyse simulation output data, validate models against real-world observations, collaborate with domain scientists who need computational tools, and use visualisation to communicate simulation results effectively.
Where you can work
| Sector | Places in Africa |
|---|---|
| Research Institutions | AIMS centres, national research foundations, CSIR, universities across Africa |
| Climate & Weather Centres | SAWS South Africa, ACMAD — running climate models for African forecasting |
| Pharmaceutical | Computational drug design groups at Aspen Pharmacare, CSIR — molecular simulation |
| Government | Economic modelling units in finance ministries and national planning commissions |
Why it matters in Africa
Weather and climate modelling is critical for Africa's agricultural and disaster management planning. Drug interaction simulation accelerates pharmaceutical development for African diseases. Economic modelling informs policy. Every complex scientific and policy challenge Africa faces has a computational dimension — and African computational scientists are in short supply.
Your pathway in
- Excel in Mathematics, Physics, and Computing at school
- Study Applied Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, or a scientific discipline at university
- Develop strong programming skills, particularly in Python, C++, MATLAB, or Fortran depending on your field
- Gain experience in high-performance computing through research projects
- Consider postgraduate study in computational science or a scientific field with heavy computational methods
Skills you will need
- Programming (Python, C++, MATLAB, Fortran)
- High-performance computing
- Numerical methods and algorithms
- Data visualisation
- Scientific writing
- Domain knowledge in the application field
A woman in this field
Prof. Mary-Jane Bopape
South Africa
Prof. Bopape is a world-class computational atmospheric scientist who uses supercomputers to solve one of the most complex mathematical challenges: simulating the Earth's atmosphere. She is currently a Distinguished Professor at UNISA and has held senior leadership roles at the South African Weather Service (SAWS) and the CSIR. She specializes in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). This involves translating the laws of physics into massive sets of differential equations that are solved on supercomputers to predict weather and climate patterns across the African continent.
Take your first step
- Study Mathematics, Physics, and Computing at school
- Learn Python and start with scientific computing libraries such as NumPy and SciPy for free
- Research applied mathematics and computational science programmes at AIMS and African universities
- Build a simulation project — model something that interests you, from ball trajectories to population growth