Graduate Student Spotlight: Cindy Serena Ngompe Massado

Cindy Serena Ngompe Massado comes to the Department of Chemistry from Bafoussam, Cameroon, and completed their undergraduate studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A member of Professor Danna Freedman‘s research group, Massado uses synthetic inorganic chemistry to tune the ground and excited state properties of Cr(IV) molecules to inform the design of molecular color sensors for Quantum sensing applications.

“I’ve always loved learning and enjoyed the sciences in general. I was particularly drawn to chemistry because it felt most central and allowed me to ponder a larger range of fundamental questions,” said Massado. “I love synthetic chemistry because I enjoy working with my hands to make something and understanding how to create something by summing its parts in intentional ways. I have enjoyed the way that a PhD allows me to explore these broad questions that at times feel a bit minorly consequential but also fascinating all the same.”

As the subject of this Graduate Student Spotlight, Massado shares the museum they’d open with five million dollars, the career they’d choose in an alternate reality, their secret talent, and more.

1. If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?
   Read!!! I have so many books on my reading list (and am always welcoming more suggestions) that I would want to get through. It would also be a perfect activity to do at night with fewer distractions and less chance of missing out on something during the day.

2. If you were given five million dollars to open a small museum, what kind of museum would you create?
   This is an interesting question for me because I don’t usually like museums for the reason that many of them reflect a colonial history and almost all embody a colonial practice. That being said I would have an interactive museum on family and language in Bamileke society. It would serve as an archive for people tracking their family lineage in our tribe and be a resource for language/cultural preservation. There would be art, images, videos, and audio recordings, as well as translators for Ghomala’ and its dialects for people to learn the language by exploring the “museum”. It would also have to be a gathering space for the community and allow people to leave their own mark in the “museum” by leaving their own art, photos, videos, or audio recordings.

3. What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with absolutely no preparation?
   The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon; the role of Western colonisation on identity formation along linguistic lines and nation building in Francophone and Anglophone Cameroons.

4. If you suddenly became a master at woodworking, what would you make?
   A holder for my vinyl records! I now have to many too display in the way that I have been so need to lock in and get trained.
5. What is special about the place you grew up?
   Cameroon is nicknamed “Africa in Miniature”, colloquially called “Le continent”. This is mostly due it containing most of Africa’s landscapes: from desert plains to tropical forests. It is also incredibly culturally diverse with over 200 tribes and languages. Douala, the largest city in Cameroon where I grew up, is a reflection of that diversity with people coming from all over. I’ve learned so much about the history of the country and African more broadly from being from Cameroon and for having lived in Douala.
6. What’s the funniest TV show you’ve ever seen?
   We Are Lady Parts is funny, smart, and incredibly entertaining. I love seeing a diverse cast of Muslim women that are written with so much care and intention. I will say though that I haven’t watched the second season which people have said is not as good as the first. I still highly recommend it.
7. What movie, picture, or video always makes you laugh no matter how often you watch it?
   This Gossip Girl meme.
8. If you could pick any career other than the one you’ve chosen, what would it be?
   I would be a historian or a sociologist. I’d travel around documenting and preserving Indigenous languages.
9. If money and practicality weren’t a problem, what would be the most interesting way to get around town?
   If money weren’t a problem, I’d personally fund public transportation worldwide. Buses, trains, high-speed railing systems everywhere for everyone and free of use!
10. What food do you crave most often?
    Seafood. Grilled fish with grilled plantains. Crab, shrimp, lobster. Seafood boils!
11. What are you most looking forward to in the next decade?
    Traveling and seeing the world as the global order continues to shift away from Western hegemony.

12. What would be the scariest monster you could imagine?
    Unfortunately, the scariest monsters are living, breathing, and walking among us. I’m not creative enough to top that.

13. What skill would you like to master?
    Making. Both in the synthetic chemistry sense, and the general handy person sense. I really want to make that vinyl record stand.
14. What hobby would you get into if time and money weren’t an issue?
    Pottery or woodworking.

15. What piece of entertainment do you wish you could erase from your mind so that you could experience for the first time again?
    Doctor Who! I wish I could start from the very beginning and watch it all the way through for the first time again.

16. What irrational fear do you have?
    Drowning in quicksand.

17. What problem or situation did TV / movies make you think would be common, but when you grew up you found out it wasn’t?
    I have never fallen into quicksand.

18. What is your secret talent?
    I’m pretty good at accumulating new skills. I’ve taught myself many crafts, and am generally quite good at figuring out how to do something.

19. If you could know the absolute and total truth to one question, what question would you ask?
    How do we save humanity from itself?

20. What was your favorite book as a child, and what is your favorite book now?
    My favorite book used to be a A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (I don’t remember the plot at this point). My favorite book right now is Decolonising the Mind by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o  (amazing post-colonial thought).