Joan Feynman was an American astrophysicist. She made contributions to the study of solar wind particles and fields,sun-Earth relations,and magnetospheric physics. In particular,Feynman was known for developing an understanding of the origin of auroras. She was also known for creating a model that predicts the number of high-energy particles likely to hit a spacecraft over its lifetime,and for uncovering a method for predicting sunspot cycles.
Rebecca Oppenheimer is an American astrophysicist and one of four curator/professors in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Oppenheimer is a comparative exoplanetary scientist. She investigates planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. Her optics laboratory is the birthplace of a number of new astronomical instruments designed to tackle the problem of directly seeing and taking spectra of nearby solar systems with exoplanets and studying their composition,with the ultimate goal of finding life outside the solar system.
Inez Fung is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of California,Berkeley,jointly appointed in the department of earth and planetary science and the department of environmental science,policy and management. She is also the co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment.
Joanne Simpson was the first woman in the United States to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology,which she received in 1949 from the University of Chicago. Simpson received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago,and did post-doctoral work at Dartmouth College. Simpson was a member of the National Academy of Engineering,and taught and researched meteorology at numerous universities as well as the federal government. Simpson contributed to many areas of the atmospheric sciences,particularly in the field of tropical meteorology. She has researched hot towers,hurricanes,the trade winds,air-sea interactions,and helped develop the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM).
Judith A. Curry is an American climatologist and former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include hurricanes,remote sensing,atmospheric modeling,polar climates,air-sea interactions,climate models,and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research. She was a member of the National Research Council's Climate Research Committee,published over a hundred scientific papers,and co-edited several major works. Curry retired from academia in 2017 at age 63,coinciding with her public climate change skepticism.
Joshua K. Willis is an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His area of expertise is current sea level rise,as well as measuring ocean temperatures. When sea level fell from 2010 to 2011,Willis stated that this was due to an unusually large La Niña transferring more rainfall over land rather than over the ocean as usually happens. In addition,Willis is the project scientist for Jason-3.
Jessica Andrea Watkins is an American NASA astronaut,geologist,aquanaut and former international rugby player. Watkins was announced as the first Black woman who completed an International Space Station long-term mission in April 2022. On June 9,2022,at 7:38 UTC,she became the African American woman with the most time in space,surpassing Stephanie Wilson's 42 day,23 hour and 46 minute record.
Kate Marvel is a climate scientist and science writer based in New York City. She is a senior scientist at Project Drawdown and was formerly an associate research scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia Engineering's Department of Applied Physics and Mathematics.
Asmeret Asefaw Berhe is a soil biogeochemist and political ecologist who is the current Director of the Office of Science at the US Department of Energy. She was previously the Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry and the Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences;University of California,Merced. Her research group worked to understand how soil helps regulate the earth's climate.
Claire Lucille Parkinson is an American Earth scientist and climatologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Peter Kalmus is an American scientist and writer based in Altadena,California. He is a data scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an associate project scientist at UCLA's Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science &Engineering.
Diane L. Evans is a geologist and the former Director of Earth Science and Technology Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research areas have included sea-level rise,climate change,and tectonics. In 2019,she was recognized by Congressman Adam Schiff for her contributions in his district.
Jennifer K. Balch is an American scientist best known for her work involving the Earth Lab Project at University of Colorado Boulder,primarily researches the relationship between fire and the Amazon. She specializes in research involving temperate and tropical ecosystems.
Gretchen Keppel-Aleks is an American scientist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan in the College of Engineering's department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering. She primarily focuses on Earth's climate and the effects of greenhouse gasses on Earth's atmosphere. Keppel-Aleks has been named a Kavli Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Corina Newsome is an American ornithologist,birder,science communicator,and graduate student at Georgia Southern University. In response to the racism faced by Black birder Christian Cooper in Central Park,Newsome co-organized Black Birders Week to celebrate Black birders.
Jean O'Brien Dickey was an American scientist. Dickey was a pioneering geodesist and particle physicist with expertise in Earth rotation. After receiving a PhD from Rutgers University,she spent much of her career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Between 1994 and 1996,she served as President of the American Geophysical Union's geodesy section,the first woman to hold that position.
Nadine Unger is a Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Exeter. She has studied the role of human activities and forests on the Earth's climate.
Fadji Zaouna Maina is a Nigerien Earth scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She was previously working in the field of hydrogeology at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where she used computational model using supercomputers to study the effects of climate change on water sustainability and predict future needs. Her research has demonstrated that wildfire in California counterintuitively increase the water availability in the watersheds,as the barren lands impact the snowpack dynamics. She also studies the potential effects of drought in African Sahel region,advocating for a holistic response including girl education and family planning,increase in agricultural production and local security.
Kendra Pierre-Louis is an American climate reporter and journalist. She most recently worked at Gimlet Media as a reporter and producer on the podcast How to Save a Planet,featuring Alex Blumberg and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.
Kennda Lian Lynch is an American astrobiologist and geomicrobiologist who studies polyextremophiles. She has primarily been affiliated with NASA. She identifies environments on Earth with characteristics that may be similar to environments on other planets,and creates models that help identify characteristics that would indicate an environment might host life. Lynch also identifies what biosignatures might look like on other planets. Much of Lynch's research on analog environments has taken place in the Pilot Valley Basin in the Great Salt Desert of northwestern Utah,U.S. Her work in that paleolake basin informed the landing location of NASA's Perseverance Rover mission—at another paleolake basin called Jezero Crater. Jim Greene,Chief Scientist at NASA,called Lynch "a perfect expert to be involved in the Perseverance rover." Helping to select the proper landing site for NASA's first crewed mission to Mars in 2035 is another of Lynch's projects. Lynch has appeared in multiple television series,as well as The New York Times,Nature,Scientific American,and Popular Science. Cell Press designated Lynch one of the most inspiring Black scientists in the United States.
