Marcia Rieke, 70, is the leader of the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, research group, a $10 billion project aimed at exploring the farthest reaches of the universe.
Read interview with Rieke below. The report is part of the New York Times Women and Leadership special, which highlights women who make significant contributions to the great stories taking place on the planet today.
As a lead researcher, you were responsible for designing and building NIRCam, and now your job is to make sure it works, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Doesn’t that cause a lot of anxiety? Being responsible for an instrument like NIRCam is like repeatedly riding a roller coaster. There’s the high point, where you feel the joy of seeing things work out as you’d hoped. There is the low point, especially in the early stages, when something breaks down and the design needs to be modified.
And there’s the wait for the next ride, for example, before launch. Of course, the high points will be the moments when fantastic data are obtained, large studies are written about the findings, and the youngest people on the team get great jobs.
How did you feel when the satellite was safely launched? And what was it like to be told that the mirrors, heat shields and other components were securely in place without any problems? Watching a rocket launch on Christmas morning was a completely new experience. Being told that the launch had been perfect in terms of speed and fuel consumption was the icing on the cake.
And knowing that all the components had been positioned without any difficulty, after so many people doubted it could be done, justified my faith and trust in the fabulous team at Webb.
NIRCam has the potential to capture light emitted just after the Big Bang, nearly 14 billion years ago, which is just now reaching our galaxy. You can already see some images at this point. How did you feel when that happened? We have already received the first images, and we are super happy. The entire Webb team is very pleased that the first steps in imaging and aligning the telescope are going so well.
How did you overcome the engineering and operational obstacles that arose in the design and construction of NIRCam? I had a lot of help in drafting the initial design that we presented when our original proposal was submitted. And then Lockheed engineers were very competent in developing a way to mount the NIRCam at room temperature but keep it capable of satisfying all the severe demands it will encounter in extreme cold.
When did you first become fascinated by astronomy? As a child, when I read astronomy and science fiction books from the public library, I was fascinated by the idea of ​​visiting other planets. At the beginning of high school, I worked as a babysitter, and I saved up money to buy my first telescope.
That’s what got her to MIT (Institute of Massachusetts Technology)? When I enrolled at MIT, I thought I would become an astronaut. So I started with a degree in aeronautical engineering. But engineering, at least as portrayed in the freshman classes I attended, wasn’t very exciting.
Is that why you changed fields and continued your doctorate, always at MIT? I was actually a physics student, but that’s one of the roots of astronomy.
This all happened in the late 1960s. What was it like to be a woman in your field of work at that time? My admissions class was one of the first in which MIT made a big effort to increase the number of women enrolled. In the year I started, I think we had 73 women among the thousand students admitted. It’s not a very large number, but it was a much larger number than what you’ve seen before.
Were the teachers and other students welcoming or rejecting your presence? They were happy, especially since the institute was making an effort to attract more women. We were very well accepted.
The only class at MIT I was the only woman in was a course in the history of Western civilization, and I sometimes got really annoyed with the professor when he asked me to explain women’s worldviews. I am one person; I’m not all women.
In what way do women bring a different set of perceptions to astronomy, in your opinion? I’ve realized over the years that different people come to conclusions in different ways, and that’s a good reason for diversity.
What advice was most helpful to your career? That a person needs to do something they love. Find your passion and go after it.
Something else? In the field of science right now, whether you apply for time on a telescope or write a proposal to apply for funding, the competition is really tough. I try to encourage younger folks not to give up. I say keep trying and you will get there.
What advice would you give to young women today who want to pursue a career like yours? Almost all research institutions that award PhDs have programs to encourage women in Stem [sigla em inglês para ciência, tecnologia, engenharia e matemática]; if you are nervous or hesitant, look for places where you can get advice or support.
I had a pretty independent personality, but I know there are people who don’t trust their abilities that much. If you’re not feeling confident, reach out to other women and talk to them. It will make you feel better and help you move forward.
Translation by Paulo Migliacci
