Joan Feynman
Personal Information
Born: 1927
Died: 2020
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Oberlin College BS Physics 1948; Syracuse University PhD Physics 1958; Columbia University postdoctural studies
"“It took courage to be a woman scientist, and determination and hard work,” (nytimes.com); By Laura Faye Tenenbaum Over a six-hour period on April 21, 2015, NASA's Solar Dyanmics Observatory (SDO) observed a wing-like prominence eruption. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Solar Dynamics Observatory. “I knew the names of the planets in order before I went to kindergarten," Joan Feynman, the younger sister of the famous physicist, told me. "My father was delighted by science. My brother, of course, was Richard Feynman—gifted as hell. When I was about three or four, he taught me to add numbers. I’d add them and if I got them right, he’d give me a reward. The reward was allowing me to pull his hair. As soon as I pulled his hair he’d make a terrible face.” (jpl.nasa.gov); "
— Joan Feynman
Professional Life
Field of Study: Astrophysics; Space Physics; Climate Change
Institution/Corporation: National Center for Atmospheric Research; NSF; Boston College; Jet Propulsion Lab; NASA Ames Research Center;
Degrees & Memberships: Member: American Geophysical Union; International Astronomical Union;
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 2000 NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal; 2002 named 1 of the Elite Senior Research Scientists, Jet Propulsion Lab
Achievements: developed the understanding of the origins of auroras & their origins, studied solar wind particles & fields, sun-Earth relations & magnetospheric physics; created a model that predicted the number of high-energy particles likely to hit a spacecraft over its lifetime & uncovered a method for predicting sunspot cycles; 1971 while working at the NASA Ames Research Center discovered that the periodic spouting of solar material known as a solar coronal mass ejection (CME) could be identified by the presence of helium in the solar wind; demonstrated that the occurrence of auroras is a product of the interaction between the Earth's magnetosphere and the magnetic field of the solar wind; helped to develop a model for estimating the environmental hazards of the local space environment; studied the influence of the sun on patterns of wintertime climate anomalies known as the Arctic oscillation or North Annular Mode (NAM)
elder brother Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist
was an inquisitive child and exhibited an interest in understanding the natural world from an early age
mother & grandmother dissuaded her from studying science because they felt the brains of women were "too feeble" to study it
was encouraged in scientific pursuits by her brother
during her graduate years took a year off to live with her husband in Guatemala, where they studied the anthropology of the Maya peoples who lived there
first elected female officer of the American Geophysical Union (AGU)
organized an AGU committee charged with advancing the fair treatment of women within the geophysics community
1957 with husband Richard Irwin Hirshberg & Betty J. Meggers wrote an anthropology paper
later in her career studied climate change & was especially interested in transient solar events & solar cycle variations
when her brother was 14 he built an electronics lab in his bedroom and hired her as his assistant for pennies a week
she found sexism pervasive at Syracuse University
credited a figure attributed to Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin for proving to her that women could indeed have a career doing science
she once infiltrated a “men only” dining room at a National Science Foundation meeting