RIP Janice Voss, engineer and scientist, astronaut
Dear friends of women in science,
On February 9, The New York Times ran an article by Dennis Hevesi about Dr. Janice Voss, an amazing scientist and astronaut who has just passed away from cancer at age 55. In the course of her career as an astronaut for NASA, Dr. Voss logged almost 19 million miles circling the earth, a total of 49 days in space. She conducted tests of fire in weightlessness, did experiments on plant growth on the shuttle, and collected data on earth topography. among other scientific pursuits.
She was on the first mission to rendezvous with the space station MIR and ran the robotic arm's mission to release a satellite during that flight. When she retired from active flights, she helped train the astronauts. The NYT article quoted Cady Coleman, who has recently returned from six months on the current space station. She said, ""Janice's job was to make sure that the astronaut - whether he was a pilot or an engineer or a former policeman - could follow those directions. She was great at it, so clear, precise."
Janice Voss began to work for NASA at 16 when she was in her first year at Purdue University. starting at the Johnson Space Center. She received the bachelors in engineering in 1975, then returned to the space center to train crews in navigation entry guidance. She received a masters in electrical engineering in 1977 and a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics in 1987, both from MIT.
Her mother explained to the reporter that Janice had decided her career path at age 6. She took a book out of the library by Madeleine L'Engle called "A Wrinkle in Time," a book featuring a woman scientist and adventurer. She became a woman scientist and adventurer in spades herself. She makes me proud to be a woman in science.
cheers,
Laura Hoopes
Hi Laura,
I was into a Marie Curie biography too. I don't remember noticing she had kids, but her husband came into it a lot, and it sounded like he brought her the rocks and she did the discoveries, in the bio I read way back when. Hmm, maybe by a woman author??
Not a book for me. A Chemistry set! I got one (I know we talked about toys for girls and boys before, but my family went ahead and gave it to me, rotten egg smells and all). I loved explosions and it is a wonder I'm still here.
Hi Laura,
For me, it was just being good at math. People used to bid for me to help them set up algebra problems! I didn't take money, but that didn't stop them from offering. But it really was a thrill to be in demand for my mind, so to speak. MRP
Hi Amanda,
Yes, same for me, a Marie Curie biography. I can't recall the author, but it might have been her daughter! I loved both the fact she found something so important and the fact that she had a family. Not sure she could always successfully balance any more than any of us can always do it, but she did it pretty well.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Laura,
For me it was a biography of Marie Curie. The idea that a woman discovered something so important about radiation is fascinating and was so attractive to me. Plus she was married and had kids, one of whom was another woman who won the Nobel Prize, how cool is that!
ARB
