Looking for People to Emulate? — Matthew R. Francis Highlighted African-American Dr. Claudia Alexander — Whose NASA Project Scientist Story — Should Inspire anyone Seeking to Beat the Cultural Odds against Achievement

© 2015 Peter Free

 

08 October 2015

 

 

Dr. Alexander left us a legacy to emulate

 

Claudia Alexander, PhD (plasma physics) died of breast cancer at age 56 in July this year.

 

Black and female, Dr. Alexander beat our culture’s white male-dominated odds to become one of NASA’s admired project scientists:

 

 

Claudia Alexander served as project scientist for the Rosetta mission [see here], which is currently orbiting Comet 67P. Until her death in July, she helped lead the United States side of the project, coordinating the various scientific and engineering aspects of the mission.

 

Alexander is the first, and so far only, African-American woman to achieve such a prestigious position on a space mission, and she did it twice: once for the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter [see here] and again for the Rosetta probe to Comet 67P. In fact, she was also the youngest ever appointed when she was picked at age 40 to be the final project scientist for the Galileo mission in 2000.

 

In her capacity for Rosetta, she needed to use both her science and engineering knowledge to make tough decisions about what science was being done and by which instruments aboard the spacecraft. It’s a difficult and frequently unglamorous job, but one that requires a skilled scientist with practical administrative abilities too—a rare combination.

 

Alexander is one of just 89 African-American women to earn PhD degrees in physics, astronomy, and related topics in the history of the nation.

 

Planetary science, like most other fields of science in America, is dominated by white men, and the trend shows no sign of changing.

 

© 2015 Matthew R. Francis, Meet Claudia Alexander, NASA Badass Who Never Got Her Due, The Daily Beast (08 October 2015) (extracts)

 

 

There is a twist in this story that I, being old, especially appreciate

 

Before college, Dr. Alexander reportedly wanted to be a journalist. But she listened to her parents — probably reluctantly and because they were paying for her education — who wanted her to become an engineer.

 

Following their generally recommended course of action, Dr. Alexander eventually achieved something scientifically and administratively admirable, which she never could have as a journalist. In so doing, she left the rest of us a legacy that encourages us, too, to tackle unfavorable probabilities.

 

 

The moral? — We stand on the shoulders of those who went before

 

In Dr. Alexander’s case, upon her parents’ foundation. And now the youthful we, on hers.

 

I cannot think of a better way to go out, even at Dr. Alexander’s sadly too soon age, than in this way. As a beautiful peak of support that invites others to summit.