40 women in astronomy
40 women in astronomy
COURTESY OF NASA
When Space Shuttle Endeavour launched on Sept . 12 , 1992 , Mae Jemison became the first African American woman to travel into space . Jemison was the science mission specialist on the eight-day mission , which was a cooperative venture between the United States and Japan . During her time in space , Jemison , who is a medical doctor , served as a co-investigator on a bone cell research experiment flown on the mission . When Endeavour returned on Sept . 20 , she had logged a total of 190 hours , 30 minutes , 23 seconds in space . Jemison , who grew up in Chicago , received a bachelor ’ s degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University and a doctorate in medicine from Cornell University . Before joining NASA ’ s astronaut program , she worked as a general practitioner and was a medical officer in the Peace Corps . Upon retiring from NASA in 1993 , she founded her own company — the Jemison Group — as well as the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence . The foundation ’ s signature program is The Earth We Share , which is an international science camp for students 12-16 years of age .
computer science , but it certainly has happened with the exoplanets and extremophiles ,” she said . Tarter knows very well what it ’ s like to work in an uncharted field of science . She knows about challenges like dragging equipment around the globe to access the stars through some of the world ’ s largest radio telescopes even though only a small fraction of observing time would be available . She knows about rewards like seeing years of planning and fundraising at SETI pay off with the construction of an observatory of their own — the Allen Telescope Array . She knows the opportunities that arise from getting in on the ground floor , and she has been one of only a handful of people who have defined what SETI is today . Her experience is an iconic one that even led Carl Sagan to use her as an inspiration for Ellie Arroway , the tenacious lead character in his book Contact who was later brought to the big screen by Jodie Foster in the film adaptation . “ I know that with Cosmos , Carl Sagan used to get approached by younger people all the time , who said , ‘ It was Cosmos that inspired me to go into science .’ It was so great . Contact is now old enough so that it ’ s having some of that kind of impact as well ,” she said . “ People come up to me after I ’ ve given a talk , and say , ‘ I loved Contact and it really inspired me . That ’ s why I went into science .’ It really feels good , and I know very well that it ’ s hard to decide that you ’ re going to do something when you can ’ t see anybody that looks like you already out there doing it .” Tarter feels that to inspire young
COURTESY OF NASA Ames Research Center
Tarter speaks on the search for extraterrestrial life as part of the Ames Research Center ’ s Director ’ s Colloquium 2014 Summer Series . people to pursue STEM careers , the science community must embrace and showcase its diversity AND take a better approach to teaching science . Young people need to learn that science is about the mystery of what we don ’ t know and the fulfillment that comes from puzzling out a solution . “ I think that the thing we need to emphasize to young people today is that what they need to do is find something that they love and get very , very , very good at doing it and then be willing to use those skills not in just doing the same thing over and over again , but in doing something new ,” Tarter said . “ The jobs of tomorrow many of them don ’ t even exist today . We couldn ’ t imagine them , we couldn ’ t write down a job description or a set of criteria for the jobs of the future , but if you have good skills you can transition and you can in fact prepare yourself now for doing something that you can ’ t conceive of .”
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