She has her bachelor's degree in physics, chemistry, and applied maths from Rhodes University in 1976 and an honours in Physics, 1977. She earned her PhD in plasma physics in 1983 from the University of Natal. Her research topic was Ion Acoustic Waves in Multi-Species Plasmas. She did postdocs at the University of California, Los Angeles in thermonuclear fusion, and in Space Shuttle-related plasma simulation at Stanford University's Space, Telecommunications and Radioscience Lab (STARLab).