What strikes you most about Dr Othman are her eyes - they sparkle like the stars she has spent years observing and working with. When I sent her the portrait for a check, she wrote saying the painting captured all of her 70 years of laughter wrinkles. I would have it no other way, I wrote back.

Malaysia’s first Astrophysicist and a person so accomplished, I don't know if I should just add her entire CV here and be done with her story. I will try, in my own capacity, to do justice to her grand spirit. She says she always wanted to do something no one had done before. She is driven by ambition, an ambition to meet goals and do what is impossible. Being the only person representing her gender numerous times through her education and career did not deter her from pursuing her PhD in Astrophysics nor pursuing a career in a field that did not exist in Malaysia back in the 1980s. ‘’I have the whole world to explore’’ she said. Why Astrophysics? She says she loves merging the definitive science and wooliness of philosophy into one through Astrophysics - in her interview with Pial Khadilla.

Her career started as a lecturer focused on setting up academic courses and laboratories for undergraduate and post-graduate training in Astrophysics and Astronomy. She also initiated activities designed for building public awareness of astronomy and space, formalised the national school curriculum on astronomy, as well as established the National Planetarium in Malaysia. She further founded the Space Science Studies Division in the Prime Minister’s Department.

As the Director General of the Division, she initiated the first Malaysian National Microsatellite Programme. She further took up the position of Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna, Austria, which consists of two sections: Space Applications Section and Committee and Policy and Legal Affairs Section. She returned to Malaysia to set up and lead the National Space Agency (ANGKASA) in Malaysia.

Dr Mazlan further founded the Langkawi National Observatory, for basic space science research, which is part of a global network of robotic observatories and space weather instrumentation. She also instituted the Malaysia Space Centre in Selangor, which houses the physical infrastructure for the operation, design and manufacture of satellites and other space related activities. She spearheaded the National Angkasawan (Astronaut) Programme, which saw the launch of the Angkasawan to the International Space Station, where they carried out several scientific, educational and cultural activities.

She was Director of the Mega Science 3.0 Project at ASM where she led a study to formulate the road maps going towards 2050 for Malaysia in five industry sectors. She is chairing the ASEAN Foresight 2050 study which among others, sets strategies for STI interventions that are required for the region. She is currently the Director of the International Science Council Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Was she ever lonely on this journey? “I was mostly the first one every time, the trailblazer. In that way, I was never lonely, it was simply exciting to be doing things for the first time!” Dr Mazlan also has a keen interest in fusing the sciences with the arts. She initiated the Science- Inspired-Arts Camp series conducted jointly with the National Art Gallery of Malaysia that brought together prominent artists and scientists. She was instrumental in the production of two large format film science documentaries and has produced seven planetarium shows. She spearheaded several artistic initiatives at the Planetarium, including the Artist in Residence programme, art exhibitions, plays, fashion shows and other performing arts activities. She established the ASM ArtScience Prize through a personal endowment in 2016.

How did you achieve all this in one lifetime, is a question that bursts out of me when I study her expansive body of work “95% of the universe we live in we know nothing about! We know only a little about the remaining 5%. There is just so much to discover! And I’m doing just that” says Dr Mazlan.

With this exemplary career, many accolades have come her way. I would like to highlight one special one - Many distinguished persons' have honorary titles conferred on them by the King of Malaysia such as ‘Dato', ‘Datuk’, ‘Tan Sri’ equivalent to the British ‘sir’. Dr Mazlan Othman was conferred the Darjah Seri Setia Negeri Sembilan Yang Amat Cemerlang (SSNS) award which carries the ‘Dato’ Seri’ title in 2020 - the highest recognition from the State.

What does it take for a human to become this real, unfiltered and raw? it takes a trailblazing goal, that you don't give up on. It happens when you accept happiness and sadness as a part of life and don't get flustered with either. It happens when you dedicate not months, but years to fulfilling a mission knowing that it's all just a drop in the ocean, but yet so worth it. It happens when you do things that change the course of the world, and yet don't need people to know it. This is pretty much what I understand of Dr Mazlan.