Dr. Beth A. Brown is from Roanoke, VA, where she grew up with her parents, younger brother, and older cousin. She liked science because she was always curious about how something worked and why something existed. She participated in science fairs in elementary school and junior high, but although space fascinated her, she chose projects that had nothing to do with astronomy. She grew up watching Star Trek, Star Wars, and other shows/movies aboutspace.
Beth was a bright student who took AP classes in high school while performing with the marching and concert bands. She started to take a physics class, but dropped it when she felt she wasn't learning anything. She was valedictoarian of her graduating class. She was still fascinated with space and decided she wanted to become an astronaut.
Dr. Brown then attended Howard University in Washington, DC where she began studying physics and a little astronomy, while participating in the "Showtime" marching band. Because of the close proximity, she was able to do a couple of summer internships at the Goddard Space Flight Center, gaining experience in doing research. One of her professors learning of her desire to be an astronaut, made her research about what it takes to become an astronaut and what it is like to be in space. She discovered that her near-sighted vision would hurt her chances of being an astronaut. Dr. Brown also discovered that being in cramped quarters didn't sound that appealing to her. Her love of astronomy continued, however. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Howard, receiving a BS in Astrophysics in 1991, and remained at there for another year in the physics graduate program. Although she had been more a physics major than an astronomy major, she decided to pursue astronomy as a career.
Leaving Howard university she enrolled in the University of Michigan, entering the doctoral program in the Department of Astronomy. While there, Beth was quite active. She taught several labs, co-created a short course on astronomy, spent time observing at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (in Arizona), presented at several conferences, and worked at a science museum which had a planetarium. She received her MS in Astronomy in 1994, then went on to finish her thesis (on elliptical galaxies). On December 20, 1998 she received her Ph.D., the first African-American woman to obtain a doctorate in astronomy from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Michigan.
Thanks in part to her previous internships, she was able to return to Goddard as a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council post-doctoral research associate. In that position, she continued her thesis work on X-ray emission from galaxies. When the post-doc position ended, she became an employee of Goddard, where she is an astrophysicist. She works within the center's National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), which is a part of the Space Science Data Operations Office.
There are three main parts to her assignment at Goddard; data acquisition, research, and outreach. As a data acquisition scientist, she has responsibilities for the astrophysics data that the NSSDC holds. She is the person who acts as a bridge between the NSSDC's astrophysics archive and other science archive research centers. Her research is on the environment of elliptical galaxies, many of which shine brightly in the X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This means that there is very hot (about 10 million degrees) material in these galaxies. For this work, she uses data from the ROSAT X-ray satellite and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date.
She loves to do things involving educational outreach. One of the outreach projects she is working on, with several people, is the Multiwavelength Milky Way project. This is an effort to make data on our home galaxy accessible to educators, students, and the general public. For the project, she works on web pages, and also appear in the Milky Way video.
Dr. Brown says, "I still like science, because I am still curious about how something works and why something exists. Space continues to fascinate me. I love my job because I get to work on several different things, and there's always something new being discovered! I continue to participate in various conferences such as the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meetings and the National Society of Black Physicists (I served for two years as the Administrative Executive Officer for NSBP). I have also been involved with the National Conference of Black Physics Students (NCBPS) for many years. Sometimes (as with any job) things can get frustrating. But I surround myself with supportive friends and family who help me to get through the tough times. And I also maintain a life outside of work, which keeps me balanced."
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