Chanda Prescod-Weinstein facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
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Prescod-Weinstein at "Becoming Interplanetary" talk at the Library of Congress, 2018
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El Sereno, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Known for | Political activism, cosmology |
| Relatives | Margaret Prescod (mother), Selma James (grandmother) |
| Awards | Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science |
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (born around 1982) is an American scientist who studies the universe and tiny particles. She is a professor at the University of New Hampshire. She also works hard to make science more welcoming for everyone.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein grew up in El Sereno, a part of East Los Angeles, California. She went to public schools in Los Angeles. Her family comes from different backgrounds. Her mother's family is from Barbados, and her father's family is Jewish from Russia and Ukraine.
College and Graduate School
Chanda went to Harvard College and earned a degree in Physics and Astronomy in 2003. She wrote about "winds" in active galactic nuclei for her main project. After that, she got a master's degree in astronomy from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2005.
Later, she decided to change her research focus. She moved to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. In 2010, she earned her PhD from the University of Waterloo. Her PhD work was about how the universe is expanding faster and faster, which is a big mystery in science.
Exploring the Universe
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's research focuses on big questions about the universe and tiny particles. She studies things like dark matter, which is a mysterious substance that we can't see. She also looks at inflation, which is a theory about how the universe grew very quickly after the Big Bang.
Postdoctoral Research
After getting her PhD, Chanda worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center for NASA. She then became a special fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, she worked with famous scientists like Alan Guth, who is known for his work on the inflation theory.
In 2016, she worked at the University of Washington. She also led a project to study how we think about "observers" in science. This project looked at how different cultures and backgrounds can change how we understand scientific knowledge.
She is also involved in the NASA STROBE-X experiment. This experiment helps scientists study very bright X-ray sources in space. Since 2019, she has been a professor at the University of New Hampshire. She teaches physics, astronomy, and women's and gender studies.
Awards and Recognition
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has received many awards for her work and her efforts to make science better.
- In 2007, she won the Gordon C Bynoe Scholarship.
- In 2013, she received the "Infinite Kilometer Award" from MIT.
- In 2017, she won the LGBT+ Physicists Acknowledgement of Excellence Award. This award recognized her hard work in making physics more welcoming for all people, especially those who are often left out.
Featured in Publications
She has been recognized by many magazines and organizations:
- Essence Magazine named her one of 15 Black Women Who are Paving the Way in STEM. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
- Her story has been shared in Huffington Post, Gizmodo, and Nylon.
- In 2020, Nature magazine included her in their list of "ten people who helped shape science."
- VICE Motherboard also honored her as one of their "Humans2020" for changing the world for the better.
Major Awards
In 2021, she received the Edward A. Bouchet Award from the American Physical Society. This award recognized her important contributions to understanding the universe and tiny particles. It also honored her tireless work to make physics more inclusive.
Her 2021 book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, won two major awards:
- The Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Science & Technology category.
- The PEN Oakland – Josephine Miles Literary Award in 2022.
Making Science Fair for Everyone
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a strong supporter of making science more diverse and fair. She believes it's important to celebrate all the different groups of people who contribute to scientific knowledge. She has been a leader in the National Society of Black Physicists.
Sharing Science and Ideas
She writes popular science articles for magazines like Scientific American, Slate, and Nature Astronomy. She also writes a monthly column for New Scientist called "Field Notes from Space-time." She is a regular writer for Physics World.
Chanda is also known for being active on social media, especially Twitter. She shares her ideas and helps people learn more about science and fairness. She helped create a reading list called "Decolonising Science." This list helps people find books and articles that look at science from different perspectives.
Standing Up for Justice
In 2018, Chanda was one of 18 scientists who wrote a public letter. This letter spoke out against unfair comments made by another scientist about men and women in physics. Thousands of academics signed the letter to show their support.
In June 2020, Chanda and a group called Particles for Justice organized a worldwide "Strike for Black Lives." Over 4,500 academics and many science organizations supported this strike. It was a day for scientists to pause their regular work and focus on fighting for racial justice.
She also worked for two years to create a list of all the professional publications by Black women with PhDs in physics. This database was released in 2022. She was inspired by the "Cite Black Women" movement, which encourages people to recognize the work of Black women.
Personal Life
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is married to a lawyer. Her mother, Margaret Prescod, is an author and activist. Her grandmother, Selma James, is also a well-known feminist.
See also
In Spanish: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein para niños
