Shooting Star
As told to Taylor Mallory

In the March.April issue of PINK, we interview Heidi Hammel, senior research scientist with the Space Science Institute. Here's more from one of the astronomical community's brightest stars.

ON PLUTO: "Members of the [International Astronomical Union] vote on issues like planet classification. I'm a member but couldn't make it to Prague for the vote [on Pluto's status as a planet]. This is not a new issue that came out of the blue in 2006. It started to unravel in 1992 when people found other objects at the same distance from the sun as Pluto – a belt of things called Kuiper Belt objects. In 1992, a team of astronomers in Hawaii found a Kuiper Belt object, and now we know about thousands of those. Pluto isn't even the largest one. So our understanding of the solar system has changed. There are only eight planets in our solar system, but there are about 240 [known] planets around other stars. There is a task force I'm a member of that tells the National Science Foundation and NASA strategies we should use to explore other planets around other stars, hoping to find an Earth-like habitable planet, which I'm quite sure we'll find."

 

ON GENDER DISCRIMINATION: "When I applied to MIT, I asked my chemistry teacher to write a recommendation. He said no, because I'd never get in. When I did, I went back to him and he said, 'It's only because you're a woman. They have quotas to fill.' I just looked at him angrily. I always hoped that every time he sees my name he feels guilty. Then in grad school, there were so few women you were never sure if you were being discriminated against. But in my class of six students, I didn't pass the qualifying exams first. Was it because I was the only woman? I don't know. I knuckled down and did it again. And I kept my private life secret. Some felt if you weren't 100 percent dedicated to your science, you weren't dedicated at all. I played guitar in a bluegrass band but never told the other grad students."

 

ON STEREOTYPES ABOUT SCIENTISTS: "The stereotype about scientists is Einstein with the crazy hair and no social skills. People think it's done by loners. That's the opposite of how we do things now. These are huge teams of people, so you have to be able to communicate well, coordinate, multi-task, which are often thought to be women's skills. But how do you get TV shows portraying scientists the way we really are? People will say, 'That's not right. Get that person some frizzy hair and a lab coat.'"