Postdoctoral fellow highlight: Dr. Lia Corrales

Dr. Lia Corrales, Postdoc at MIT
Recipient of the Einstein Prize Fellowship

Biography

Dr. Lia Corrales is currently a postdoc at MIT Kavli Institute, and will be taking an Einstein Fellowship to University of Wisconsin-Madison in Fall 2016. She received her Ph.D from Columbia University, where she was a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow, studying astrophysical dust with high energy light. She received her bachelor's degree in Physics from Harvey Mudd College and was born and raised in San Diego, CA.

This interview is part of a series of posts on the Astronomy In Color blog dedicated to recognizing achievements by outstanding astronomers of color. Feel free to contact Jorge Moreno (jorgemoreno AT cpp.edu) if you know any other person of color in astronomy who has recently won an award or made any other accomplishment.

Moreno: What was your reaction when you first learned that you won the 2016 Einstein Fellowship?

Lia: Complete surprise. I saw the email in my inbox, with the first line reading "Congratulations," and I was floored. First I did a happy dance, and then I had to sit down for awhile to catch my breath.  I went out dancing that night to celebrate! 

Moreno: Please tell me more about yourself. What’s your story?

Lia:  I grew up in San Diego, CA. Originally, I wanted to move out East for college, I suppose because the idea of snow and big cities was very appealing to me.  But at the last minute, I applied to Harvey Mudd College, a small liberal arts college with a strong focus on undergraduate education in science and engineering. When I look back on it now, I can't believe what a fortunate accident that was. The focused teaching and the personality of the college totally won me over, and I never looked back. I finally headed east for graduate school at Columbia University, where my advisor, Frits Paerels, got me hooked on wacky ideas like studying dust with X-rays.

Moreno: What inspired you to pursue a career in astronomy?

Lia: When I was six, my dad explained to me that the Sun was a star, and that other stars could potentially be "Suns" for other planets. My mind was BLOWN. I was also hooked on Discovery channel space documentaries, and when I was in 8th grade I permanently adopted my dad's copy of A Brief History of Time and read it over meticulously. I just happened to be good at math and physics, so when it came time to decide what I would do for college, I knew that I was going to go for a career in astrophysics. At the time, I knew that it entailed graduate school, but I didn't know what it took to get there. I was fortunate enough to be offered a summer research position right away at Harvey Mudd, and this was the first time I learned that I could do research!

Moreno: In your opinion, what qualities makes your work so unique and compelling?

Lia: I grew up incredibly enthusiastic about black holes. So of course, when I got to graduate school, I wanted to study nothing but black holes. However, for my second graduate research project (a requirement at Columbia), I got hooked on dust when my soon-to-be advisor Frits Paerels pitched an idea to look for X-ray scattering from intergalactic dust. At the time, I was very attracted to the high risk, high reward idea of discovering intergalactic dust. It was definitely a long shot; I have two papers on the subject now that describe just how hard it is. In general, I still find myself attracted to novel projects that use instruments in a way that they weren't necessarily intended to be used.  These projects are also generally very hard to do, otherwise they would have been done already.  In graduate school I spent a lot of time building my own infrastructure and frameworks for studying dust with X-ray imaging and spectroscopy. In a way, dust scattering has been done before. However, I consider it a huge reward to bring a new perspective to the field and to convince people that high energy instruments can contribute to our understanding of interstellar dust in a way that other wavelengths can't.  I am very excited for the future!

Moreno: As a woman of color, what challenges and obstacles have you faced in your career? How have you overcome these challenges?

Lia:  Sometimes it is hard to pinpoint whether challenges are directly related to racism or sexism, etc.  I would say that my biggest challenge has been feeling the need to validate my presence as a scientist, whether in a classroom, in a meeting, or on a panel. I also struggle frequently to feel that I am being heard. Several things have helped tremendously. First, finding a good therapist. Second, I have consciously been taking steps in my personal life to practice self-affirmation and to cultivate self-confidence.  Finally, having a good social network of support and good collaborations is helpful. Aid and cheer for others’ success, because science is a group effort!

Moreno: People of color, especially women of color, are severely under-represented in our field. Can you point to 1 or 2 factors (specific programs, mentoring etc.) that helped you succeed? Can you also share 1 or 2 ideas for making astronomy a more equitable and inclusive community? For dismantling racism and sexism in general?

Lia: I think the summer bridge program at Harvey Mudd College, which I attended before starting my freshman year, gave me a huge opportunity by funding my first summer of undergraduate research. At the time, I definitely did not know that summer research was something I could do, or needed to do, to boost my graduate school application.  I think bridge programs, or programs that allow underrepresented students to boost their work experience in general, are tremendously helpful. These students need good advisors, however. I believe that the science community needs better training for mentors who are not aware of the issues that many underrepresented students face.

Moreno: What advice would you give to other young women of color interested in following your path?

Lia: Don’t work alone. Find people who can understand what you’re going through on the path you’ve chosen — both people who understand your career path and people who understand you’re situation as a minority. Also, you may feel tempted to take on all the problems in the world, but one of the most important things you can do as a member of an underrepresented minority is to succeed. (Advice given to me a long time ago, which I am passing along now.) So pick your battles (if you can), conserve your energy, and assert your presence.

Moreno: Any final words?

Lia: Learn to dust yourself off after a failure or rejection. A lot of things in science don’t work, and the vast majority of your applications will be rejected! This is completely natural and okay. If you make mistakes, learn from them. Don’t take no for an answer.  And don’t get turned off by the first rejection — apply again next year. 

*Jorge Moreno is an Assistant Professor at Cal Poly Pomona. He is also a member of the AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA).

Student highlight: Amy Steele

Amy Steele (PhD Candidate, UMPC)
Hon. Mention, 2016 Chambliss Award

Biography

Meet Amy Steele. Amy is the recipient of an honorable mention for the 2016 Chambliss Prize, for her work on modeling debris disks resolved at millimeter wavelengths. She is currently a second-year graduate student at the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP), working with Dr. Aki Roberge at NASA Goddard. She previously received a BA from Williams College, and an MA in astronomy from Wesleyan University, where she worked with Dr. Meredith Hughes. Her first first-author paper on debris disks is available here. After getting her PhD, Amy hopes to continue pursuing original research in the field of circumstellar disks.

This interview is part of a series of posts on the Astronomy In Color blog dedicated to recognizing achievements by outstanding astronomers of color. Feel free to contact Jorge Moreno (jorgemoreno AT cpp.edu) if you know any other person of color in astronomy who has recently won an award or made any other accomplishment.

Moreno: What was your reaction when you first learned that you received an honorable mention for the 2016 Chambliss Prize?

Amy: I read the email twice, did a little dance, and then started telling people. Yes, I thought, “So close! [to the medal],” but I think making the list is still a great accomplishment, especially as a grad student. I was also thrilled to see the names of so many other young black women!

Moreno: Please tell me more about yourself. What’s your story?

Amy: I am a first-generation American, first of my siblings to get a Bachelors degree, and first in my family to get an advanced degree. My parents are from Grenada and came to states in the 80s. I grew up in Florida, got my Bachelors from Williams, worked in Texas as an astronomy lab supervisor for three years. After that, I obtained an MA in astronomy at Wesleyan, and I am now at the University of Maryland.

Moreno: What inspired you to pursue a career in astronomy?

Amy: My fifth grade teacher blew my mind by teaching me that the Sun is a star, like the ones I can see at night -- and that I live on a planet speeding around that star, and that there were 8 others in our system (this was the early 90s). The oddness of it sank in and I could not think of anything else. My amazing parents were extremely supportive of my newfound interest and supplied me with books and a telescope for Christmas. I have been stuck since then.

Moreno: In your opinion, what qualities make your work so unique and compelling?

Amy: I am a very persistent (borderline stubborn) person, and I like to challenge myself. I find that I can channel this persistence into my work, problem solving, and coding. It sometimes makes for a slow race, but I finish with a deeper understanding of the course. In terms of my current work, I have plans to write a generalized Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) disk modeling code to handle ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre Array) continuum datasets. 

Moreno: As a woman of color, what challenges and obstacles have you faced in your career? How have you overcome these challenges?

Amy: We all face challenges of some sort everyday. I will share specific experiences with the hope that someone reading this can see that it is possible to move forward and remain hopeful. 

[Trigger warning]

My education up until college was fairly mixed in terms of ethnicity, though I was usually the only black person in my classes. I felt ostracized by most students and was frequently teased (e.g., being called an “oreo” and on one occasion, a n*gger in class). There was also the constant demand for me to prove my knowledge in general settings, which was initially fun. My view quickly changed, however when I realized that it was not a game.

As an undergrad, I did not know which classes I should take, who I should try to work with, what programs to apply for, etc. I relied on the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship (MMUF) to teach me what getting a PhD entails, though it came too late to help with the timing of astronomy REUs.

Lastly, I have been dealing with micro-aggressions in academia from my peers and people in positions of power for more than a decade. Examples include having professors tell me that I should try an easier major, having a classmate verbally rank my class to my face—placing me at the bottom of that list without knowledge of my grades, and having a professor ask me how I expect anyone to respect me while in my supervisory role.

Getting past these experiences is rarely easy, but it is doable! I choose not to hold on to the negativity. Finding people who care about these issues and are willing to listen and act is also extremely helpful and encouraging. The University of Maryland is doing a great job at promoting awareness.

Moreno: People of color, especially women of color, are severely under-represented in our field. Can you point to 1 or 2 factors (specific programs, mentoring etc.) that helped you succeed?

Amy: A number of the programs that I have seen emerge in the past few years did not exist when I was an undergrad. What I found helpful was my Mellon Mays fellowship (MMUF), and more recently, the Masters program at Wesleyan University. I was lucky enough to be advised and mentored by Meredith Hughes. She is a fountain of kindness, knowledge, patience, and support. I have collected other mentors over the years (Olga Beaver, Molly Magavern, and Jay Pasachoff), and am ever grateful for their encouragement. There are others, and I also thank them for their support.

Additionally, I think that a bridge program would have been a great experience and useful had I not gone to Wesleyan.

Moreno: Can you also share 1 or 2 ideas for making astronomy a more equitable and inclusive community? For dismantling racism and sexism in general?

Amy: In my experience, the repeat offenders of sexist actions, racist comments, and/or micro-aggressive actions often think they are incapable of such behavior. Additionally, I have noticed that people, who express thoughts such as those mentioned above, are frequently oblivious to how those thoughts are interpreted by the affected party.  Such comments/actions tend to affect people disproportionately due to their personal, and usually unknown experiences.

Increasing the awareness and mindfulness of everyone in the field will hopefully lead to a more supportive and collaborative environment.

Moreno: What advice would you give to other young women of color interested in following your path?

Amy: (1) Getting a PhD is not a race and there is no one set, or correct way to go about it. (2) Believe in and promote yourself! (3) Take time to be happy (I have recently taken up bouldering, and love to knit and dance). (4) Ask for help when you need it.

Moreno: Any final words?

Amy: Thank you for reading a bit of my story. Take care and be happy!

*Jorge Moreno is an Assistant Professor at Cal Poly Pomona. He is also a member of the AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA).

Student highlight: Brianna Thomas

Brianna Thomas (Howard '17)
Recipient of the 2016 Chambliss Award

Biography

Meet Brianna Thomas, recipient of the 2016 Chambliss Student Achievement Award, granted every year by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to recognize exemplary research by undergraduate and graduate students. Brianna is currently a junior at Howard University. She won this award for her work entitled “Investigating the Orbital Period Valley of Giant Planets in Kepler Data”. She conducted this research last summer as part of the SAO-Harvard REU program, under the supervision of Dr. Jayne Birkby. She was an affiliate of the Harvard Banneker Institute. She is particularly excited to figure out whether there is life on other worlds. After graduation, she plans to get a PhD in astronomy. While her field of choice is currently exoplanets, she intends to try working in other fields of astrophysics before graduation, to get additional experience and a more complete overview of our field. 

This interview is part of a series of posts on the Astronomy In Color blog dedicated to recognizing achievements by outstanding astronomers of color. Feel free to contact Jorge Moreno (jorgemoreno AT cpp.edu) if you know any other person of color in astronomy who has recently won an award or made any other accomplishment.

Moreno: What was your reaction when you first learned that you won the 2016 Chambliss Prize?

Brianna: I was so happy! It felt amazing to have acknowledgement for a project that I’ve worked hard on.

Moreno: Please tell me more about yourself. What’s your story?

Brianna: I grew up in Queens, NY, one of the best places to live as a kid. There was always so much to do! I learned a lot with each passing day, and having such a supportive, loving family in my corner made life that much easier for me. I have lived on the same block, with the same neighbors, and I attended the same, small primary school for 8 years, with the same students. From that, I know first hand what it means when people say that it “takes a village to raise a child”, and it is one of my go-to mottos. Like many other teens, once I arrived at a new high school, I struggled with ways to fit in with other students around me. I realized that I needed a lot more knowledge about my history and myself in order to prosper, so I decided to attend Howard University, a historically black university, for my undergraduate career. It was one of the best decisions that I have made!

Moreno: What inspired you to pursue a career in astronomy?

Brianna: Astronomy keeps me grounded, ironically :). It helps me put my “earthly” problems in perspective, and it reminds me that it is a blessing that I am able to be here to experience everything around me. I can’t think of any other field that would make me happier.

Moreno: In your opinion, what qualities make your work so unique and compelling?

Brianna: One of the coolest skills I learned from high school was how to turn on my creativity whenever I wanted. It was a humanities school, so I found myself having to participate in music, art, theater, and film even when I didn’t feel like it all of the time. What I didn’t realize was how useful this skill would be in scientific research! Understanding all of the basic topics of physics and astronomy for my research only got me but so far. Finding an answer required thinking from different points of view and piecing together various aspects of what I knew to see if a correlation could be made. It also takes a bit of creativity to imagine what I’m working on, so I really like that I’ll be able to keep that side of my thinking active along with my logical side.

Moreno: As a woman of color, what challenges and obstacles have you faced in your career? How have you overcome these challenges?

Brianna: Again, I had a safe bubble to grow up in throughout my childhood. It was safe, not only because it was familiar, but also because everyone in it looked like me and followed my culture. High school was where I first realized that I could be very different. It was exhilarating, at first. By my last year, however, I realized that there were so many negative stereotypes, and rarely any positive opinions, that people had about my race and my culture. Not knowing how to respond, I subconsciously took them to heart. This trampled my belief in my ability to be good enough, especially in academics. It took some time, but I was eventually able to learn how false these stereotypes really were. They were just statements and not a true depiction of myself and what I was capable of.

Moreno: People of color, especially women of color, are severely under-represented in our field. Can you point to 1 or 2 factors (specific programs, mentoring etc.) that helped you succeed? Can you also share 1 or 2 ideas for making astronomy a more equitable and inclusive community? For dismantling racism and sexism in general?

Brianna: I believe that mentorship is what will guide us forward. While we can try to influence the astronomers/physicists who act on their prejudices to do otherwise, it will take a lot of time. Only those who are willing to listen are worth talking to about change. However, we should definitely focus on encouraging underrepresented groups and providing them pathways to success, since we know what we are capable of changing. Excellent examples of this are the National Astronomy Consortium (NAC) and Banneker Institute programs, ones that I am grateful to have been affiliated with. They took the initiative to support youth in underrepresented groups who wanted to pursue astronomy. It was great to have allies, but most importantly, we had each other.

I’m not sure if we can ever dismantle racism and sexism completely. However, I do believe that we can overpower its effects by making sure that there are strong mentorship communities available for underrepresented groups. Therefore, even when the rest of the world is slowly changing, we’ll still be as strong as ever.

Moreno: What advice would you give to other young women of color interested in following your path?

Brianna: Besides studying hard (super important!), find an environment that helps you flourish! If that means attending a university in a buzzing city that’s completely different from your quiet neighborhood, then do that. Or maybe it means that you need to seek out others who can mentor you if the people around you doubt your abilities. This might be random, but think about taking the initiative to email that scientist that you aspire to be—ask if you can do research with them.

I understand how hard it can be to not see other scientists that look like you in the media, and in turn, feel discouraged. I also know what it feels like to have people doubt you. The minute those feelings begin to affect your work or, most importantly, you, it’s time to change your environment. Because, trust me, there are places out there where people want nothing more than to see you succeed. You just need to find them.

Moreno: Any final words?

Brianna: Follow your gut! It’s usually right ;).

*Jorge Moreno is an Assistant Professor at Cal Poly Pomona. He is also a member of the AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA).

Student highlight: Moiya McTier

Moiya McTier (Harvard '16)

Recipient of the 2016 Chambliss Award 

Biography 

Meet Moiya McTier, recipient of the 2016 Chambliss Student Achievement Award. This award is granted every year by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to recognize exemplary research by undergraduate and graduate students. Moiya is currently a senior at Harvard University. She won this award for her work on determining exoplanet habitability using orbital eccentricity. She conducted this research last summer, when she was a member of the Harvard Banneker Institute. This work ties directly to her senior thesis, a science fiction novel set on the planet she studied, which she eventually hopes to get published. After graduation, Moiya plans to get her PhD in astrophysics and, if she still has any energy left, a master’s degree in medieval European folklore.

This interview is the first of a series of posts on the Astronomy In Color blog dedicated to recognizing achievements by outstanding astronomers of color. Feel free to contact Jorge Moreno (jorgemoreno AT cpp.edu) if you know any other person of color in astronomy who has recently won an award or made any other accomplishment.

  

Moreno: What was your reaction when you first learned that you won the 2016 Chambliss Prize?

Moiya: I had almost forgotten that I had entered the contest by the time the winners were announced. So when I got the email, I had to read it a few times before the news really settled in. And then I called my mom and we celebrated together on the phone. 

Moreno: Please tell me more about yourself. What’s your story?

Moiya: This is going to sound fake, but I promise it’s true. I actually grew up with in a log cabin in the middle of the woods in Pennsylvania without running water. We didn’t have TV and I was an only child, so I spent a lot of time cracking small codes and cyphers that my mom would create. I wanted to be a cryptographer pretty much all the way up to my sophomore year of college, when I took my first astronomy class. 

Moreno: What inspired you to pursue a career in astronomy?

Moiya: My finding astronomy was a total fluke. I needed a fourth class one semester and one of my friends asked if I wanted to try out a class on extra-galactic astronomy with her. She ended up not taking the class, but I kind of fell in love with the topic. From there, I took the typical route: internships, term-time research, grad school applications. And there were definitely times when I thought it would be less painful to give up and go back to my hometown to become a coal miner, but I had friends and advisors at each step to remind me how much I loved astronomy and how good I was at it. 

Moreno: In your opinion, what qualities makes you so unique and compelling?

Moiya: I absolutely refuse to confine myself to a single defining box. As a result of that, I’m actually studying both astronomy and mythology in school. That means I have years of experience in tackling problems using an interdisciplinary approach. In order to be successful, you have to be able to adapt to new situations and think of new solutions to old problems. My work is unique because I approach it in a way that most people aren’t willing to. 

Moreno: As a woman of color, what challenges and obstacles have you faced in your career? How have you overcome these challenges?

Moiya: Growing up, I was one of maybe five black people in a part of Pennsylvania where it’s not uncommon to hear racial slurs being thrown around, so I’m no stranger to overt racism. But in my time at Harvard, I’ve learned that systemic – or subtle – racism, and not its overt counterpart, is what really stands in my way. People sometimes ask why it took me so long to believe that I could become a scientist. Well, I don’t know how I could have been expected to realize it sooner when I had never seen anyone who looks like me doing anything like what I’m doing now.  

I’ve overcome that obstacle by repeatedly telling myself that if I succeed, maybe I can be the reason a young woman of color decides to pursue a STEM career in 20 years. 

Moreno: People of color, especially women of color, are severely under-represented in our field. What ideas do you have for making astronomy a more equitable and inclusive community? For dismantling racism and sexism in general?

Moiya: I do genuinely believe that we can fix this problem that exists in our community, but I think it will take two things: education and time. I think it needs to become standard in astronomy departments everywhere to hold mandatory seminars and workshops about the different kinds of inequalities that exist in our communities. We can’t expect people to help us fix the problem if they don’t know it exists. Once that happens, I think we just need time to let changes happen. 

Moreno: What advice would you give to other young women of color interested in following your path?

Moiya: I know it’s difficult, but please, please, please try not to compare yourself to your peers. In my experience, nothing has been more damaging to my emotional or mental wellbeing than basing my self-worth on the accomplishments of those around me. Just the fact that you’re even thinking about pursuing this type of career means you’re already cooler than words can express.

Moreno: Any final words?

Moiya: Just that I really hope my winning this prize shows people that anyone can succeed in astronomy. And I can’t wait to see the changes that happen in the field in the coming years! 

*Jorge Moreno is an Assistant Professor at Cal Poly Pomona. He is also a member of the AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA).