Biography:Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Born
El Sereno, Los Angeles , U.S.
Alma materHarvard College
University of Waterloo
University of California, Santa Cruz
Scientific career
FieldsCosmology
Quantum gravity
Equality activism
InstitutionsGoddard Space Flight Center
MIT
University of Washington

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an American cosmologist, science writer and equality activist based at the University of Washington. She is the Principal Investigator on a Foundational Questions Institute (FQXI) grant titled "Epistemological Schemata of Astro | Physics: A Reconstruction of Observers".

Early life and education

Prescod-Weinstein was born in El Sereno in East Los Angeles, California, and went to school in the Los Angeles Unified School District.[1][2] She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Astronomy at Harvard College in 2003. Her thesis, "A study of winds in active galactic nuclei", was completed under the supervision of Martin Elvis.[3] She then earned a Master's degree in Astronomy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, working with Anthony Aguirre.[4] In 2010, Prescod-Weinstein completed her Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Acceleration as Quantum Gravity Phenomenology",[5] under the supervision of Lee Smolin and Niayesh Afshordi at University of Waterloo, while conducting her research at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.[1][6] In doing so, she became the 63rd African-American woman in history to earn a Ph.D. in Physics.[1][7]

Research

Prescod-Weinstein's research has focused on various topics in cosmology and theoretical physics, including the axion as a dark matter candidate,[8] inflation, and classical and quantum fields in the early universe.[9]

From 2004 to 2007 Prescod-Weinstein was a named National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.[10]

After Prescod-Weinstein's Ph.D., she was a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Observational Cosmology Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center.[10][11] In 2011, she won a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was jointly appointed to the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and the Department of Physics.[10][11][12] At MIT, Prescod-Weinstein worked in Alan Guth's group in the Centre for Theoretical Physics.[13]

In 2016, she became the Principal Investigator on a $100,522 FQXI grant to study “Epistemological Schemata of Astro | Physics: A Reconstruction of Observers” seeking to answer questions regarding how to re-frame who is an "observer", to acknowledge those existing outside of the European Enlightenment framework, and how that might change knowledge production in science.[14]

She is working on the NASA STROBE-X experiment.[15]

Awards

Prescod-Weinstein earned the Barbados House Canada Inc. Gordon C Bynoe Scholarship in 2007.[10] In 2013 she won the MIT "Infinite Kilometer Award".[16] In March 2017, Prescod-Weinstein won the LGBT+ Physicists Acknowledgement of Excellence Award "For Years of Dedicated Effort in Changing Physics Culture to be More Inclusive and Understanding Toward All Marginalised Peoples".[17]

Public engagement

Prescod-Weinstein is an advocate[18] for increasing the diversity within science by considering intersectionality[19] and proper celebration of the underrepresented groups who contribute to scientific knowledge production.[20] She has been a member of the executive committee of the National Society of Black Physicists.[21] In 2017 she was a plenary speaker at the Women in Physics Canada meeting.[22]

Prescod-Weinstein has contributed popular science articles for Slate, American Scientist, Nature Astronomy, Bitch media, and Physics World.[23][24][25][26][27] She is on the Book Review Board of Physics Today and editor-in-chief of The Offing.[28] The American Physical Society described her as a "vocal presence on Twitter".[29] Prescod-Weinstein maintains a "Decolonising Science Reading List.[30] Prescod-Weinstein has given several interviews and public talks.[31][32][33][34]

In 2018, Prescod-Weinstein published "Particles for Justice", a statement condemning Alessandro Strumia's controversial comments on women in physics at CERN[35][36][37].

Personal life

Prescod-Weinstein is queer and agender.[2] She is married to a lawyer.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda Rosalyn Sojourner (2010-09-22) (in en). Cosmic Acceleration As Quantum Gravity Phenomenology. UWSpace. https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/5498?show=full. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pitney, Nico (2015-06-24). "Meet The 63rd Black Woman In American History With A Physics Ph.D." (in en-GB). HuffPost UK. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/chanda-prescod-weinstein_n_7574020. 
  3. ↑ Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda (2018-02-06). A study of winds in active galactic nuclei /. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/33760463_A_study_of_winds_in_active_galactic_nuclei. 
  4. ↑ "Guest Post: Chanda". http://backreaction.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/guest-post-chanda.html. 
  5. ↑ "Cosmic acceleration as quantum gravity phenomenology", WorldCat.
  6. ↑ "Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | Perimeter Institute" (in en). https://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/people/chanda-prescod-weinstein. 
  7. ↑ "AAWIP" (in en-US). http://aawip.com/. 
  8. ↑ Nowogrodzki, Anna (2015-12-07). "Tiny dark matter stars would harbour particles that act as one" (in en-US). New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28632-tiny-dark-matter-stars-would-harbour-particles-that-act-as-one/. 
  9. ↑ "Meet a Scientist - Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | Perimeter Institute" (in en). http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/videos/meet-scientist-chanda-prescod-weinstein. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Curriculum Vitae" (in en-US). http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/curriculum-vitae/. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | Perimeter Institute" (in en). https://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/people/chanda-prescod-weinstein. 
  12. ↑ "Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Physics – Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars" (in en-US). http://mlkscholars.mit.edu/cprescod-weinstein/. 
  13. ↑ "How I Got Here" (in en-US). http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/how-i-got-here-1/. 
  14. ↑ "FQXi - Foundational Questions Institute" (in en-US). https://fqxi.org/grants/large/awardees/view/__details/2016/prescod-weinstein. 
  15. ↑ "Making a Universe with Axions | Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC)" (in en). https://kipac.stanford.edu/events/making-universe-axions. 
  16. ↑ "MIT School of Science" (in en). http://science.mit.edu/policies/sos-staff-infinite-k-award-previous-winners. 
  17. ↑ "lgbt+physicists - Acknowledgement of Excellence Awards". http://lgbtphysicists.org/excellence.html. 
  18. ↑ Sokol, Joshua (2016-08-23). "Why the Universe Needs More Black and Latino Astronomers" (in en). Smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-can-we-give-black-and-latino-astronomers-foundation-reach-stars-180960213/. 
  19. ↑ Kaplan, Sarah (2017-07-11). "Women of color face staggering harassment in space science" (in en-US). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/07/11/women-of-color-face-staggering-harassment-in-space-science/. 
  20. ↑ Bradford., Edwards, Sue. Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA. New York: ABDO Digital. ISBN 1680797409. OCLC 1003680291. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1003680291. 
  21. ↑ "Guest Post: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein" (in en-US). Sean Carroll. 2006-10-22. http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2006/10/22/guest-post-chanda-prescod-weinstein/. 
  22. ↑ Institute for Quantum Computing (2017-08-15). "Chanda Prescod-Weinstein - Fields of Cosmological Dreams". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAqseJNNC7E&feature=youtu.be. 
  23. ↑ "Writing for the Public" (in en-US). http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/writing/. 
  24. ↑ Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda (2017-08-09). "Stop Equating 'Science' With Truth" (in en-US). Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/08/evolutionary_psychology_is_the_most_obvious_example_of_how_science_is_flawed.html. 
  25. ↑ Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda (2017-08-14). "Scientists Must Challenge What Makes Studies Scientific" (in en). American Scientist. https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/macroscope/scientists-must-challenge-what-makes-studies-scientific. 
  26. ↑ Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda. "Curiosity and the end of discrimination" (in En). Nature Astronomy 1 (6). doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0145. ISSN 2397-3366. Bibcode: 2017NatAs...1E.145P. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0145. 
  27. ↑ "Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | Bitch Media" (in en). https://www.bitchmedia.org/profile/dr-chanda-prescod-weinstein. 
  28. ↑ Thompson, Rachel. "#LitMagLove: The Offing's Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | Room Magazine" (in en). https://roommagazine.com/interview/litmaglove-offings-chanda-prescod-weinstein. 
  29. ↑ "APS Member Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Gets the HuffPo Treatment" (in en). 2015-07-06. https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/updates/huffpost.cfm. 
  30. ↑ Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda (2015-04-25). "Decolonising Science Reading List". https://medium.com/@chanda/decolonising-science-reading-list-339fb773d51f. 
  31. ↑ "Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, PhD: A day in the life of an astrophysicist" (in en-US). Spark Plug Labs. http://www.sparkpluglabs.co/awesome-woman/chanda-prescod-weinstein. 
  32. ↑ "Speaker" (in en-US). http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/speaking/. 
  33. ↑ "In the News" (in en-US). http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/profiles. 
  34. ↑ Calkins, Isabel (2017-02-06). "10 Black Women in Academia That You Need To Know About" (in en). NYLON. http://www.nylon.com/articles/black-women-in-academia. 
  35. ↑ "Home" (in en-US). https://www.particlesforjustice.org/. 
  36. ↑ "Physicists Condemn Sexism Through ‘Particles for Justice’" (in en-US). WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/physicists-condemn-sexism-through-particles-for-justice/. 
  37. ↑ "Thousands of physicists sign letter condemning 'disgraceful' Alessandro Strumia gender talk – Physics World" (in en-GB). Physics World. 2018-10-08. https://physicsworld.com/a/thousands-of-physicists-sign-letter-condemning-disgraceful-alessandro-strumia-gender-talk/. 

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