By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Centre For Corporate Communications

BANGI, 1 November 2015 – Don’t confine yourself to one job or one place.

Young people just starting out in their careers should be willing to take risks and not be afraid of making mistakes, said Prof Datuk Dr Mazlan Othman in response to being conferred the honorary title of Professor Emerita  at the 43^rd convocation of The National University of Malaysia (UKM) here today.

Prof Emerita Dr Mazlan said her career was a progression from lecturer and researcher to manager and leader, to international diplomat.

Every phase of her career, she said, gave her a different sense of satisfaction because of the need of varying contributions.

“My curiosity and my love of mystery saw endless possibilities in a yet unknown universe. My keen sense of adventure and obsession for freedom, physically and mentally, saw space as the final frontier for exploration. My love of the arts and search for the place of humanity in the universe found exquisite beauty and God’s creations in the filigree of space.

“So be curious, sharpen your sense of adventure. Don’t confine yourself to one job or one place. Take risks. Go to Africa, go to Antarctica. You never know where these might lead you. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Trust me, you learn more from making mistakes than from basking in your success,” she elaborated.

She added that with the honour, she had come full circle and now she will give back to society.

Prof Mazlan is a fellow at the National Academy of Sciences,  an astrophysicist, a pioneering figure in the field of space science in Malaysia and a former lecturer at UKM.

She is the current director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna, Austria. She obtained her Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 1981, and was the first woman to do so since the university was founded.

She has also been appointed Space Ambassador for Extraterrestrial contact by the United Nations.