Meet Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Black Woman Theoretical Physicist

September 18, 2015 11:39 AM

Dr. Prescod-Weinstein talks about her inspiration, teaching herself what she needed to know, how she keeps balance in her life, and being one of 89 black women with a physics Ph.D., and the only theoretical physicist.

"All of these people around us, who are making sure that our working environment and our home environment function so that we can get work done, are part of the scientific process—and part of the activist process, in my case. So, I have to give them credit for that."

"But my dream is for Black children, and Native American children, and Latino children, and Asian children to be able to make the choices that White children seem to sometimes be able to make, which is that, "I'm going to think about this because it interests me." Not because, "I owe it to the community." Not because, "I see this problem in my community that doesn't get solved because of the color of our skin, so I'm going to try and solve it." But for them to say, "Hey, dark matter's a weird thing. Why don't I think about that?" I want everybody to have that equal opportunity to dream, and dream big, and not dream in the context of the duress of racism, and transphobia, and a host of other things."

posted by Deoridhe (20 comments total)

The fact that you can count to a precise number the black women who have been awarded PhDs in physics literally sent a chill down my spine. The fact that that number is 5 percent of the physics PhDs awarded every year made me shut my computer and take a walk outside to yell.
posted by Etrigan at 11:58 AM on September 18, 2015 [12 favorites]

She's amazing, and I love that she recognizes how lucky she is to have a privileged enough childhood that led her to this point. Also, from her Instagram account she seems like somebody I want to totally hang out with.
posted by numaner at 12:02 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Twitter: In 2010, I became the 69th Black American woman to get a PhD in physics.

I guess that gets a "Yay!" and a "Boo!" at the same time.

"Basically I do calculus all day, on paper," she told HuffPost. "I'm a little bit of a hold-out. There are things I could be doing by computer that I just like to do by hand."

Regardless of race or gender, this woman is in my tribe.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:02 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

And her husband is Asian. As an Asian guy who have dated mostly black women, I'm loving everything about this story.
posted by numaner at 12:09 PM on September 18, 2015

She also met Ahmed Mohamed during an MSNBC interview on Wednesday, and offered her encouragement to the boy.
posted by Sangermaine at 12:28 PM on September 18, 2015 [4 favorites]

Plus she has some awesome advice for underrepresented minority students coming up in astrophysics.

Seriously, this lady sounds amazing. Her suggestions are so good! And she does a really good job explaining to a student who might not have explicitly heard these things why they're good for learning difficult material.
posted by sciatrix at 12:38 PM on September 18, 2015 [4 favorites]

The mere fact that the number of black women with physics phds is a two-digit, countable number is in itself a blistering indictment of the United States. I cannot understand how anybody who learns this fact doesn't become committed to some kind of revolution.
posted by Jon_Evil at 12:41 PM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

And her husband is Asian. As an Asian guy who have dated mostly black women, I'm loving everything about this story.

According to this article which she wrote for Gawker, her ex-wife is Chinese, but she's now married to a cis man. Both marriages faced strong disapproval from her in-laws. She has gone through so much in both her personal and professional life. Remarkable woman.
posted by peripathetic at 12:51 PM on September 18, 2015 [4 favorites]

The fact that that number is 5 percent of the physics PhDs awarded every year made me shut my computer and take a walk outside to yell.

"89 black women with a physics Ph.D." sounds shockingly low, but "5% of all physics Ph.Ds are black women" isn't that bad. From Index Mundi, 12.85% of the US population is black, and roughly 50% are women, so that's 6.5% black women in the whole US. From that perspective, 5% actual versus 6.5% expected is better than I would expect given the perceived racial imbalances in physics and academia.
posted by Rangi at 12:55 PM on September 18, 2015

Rangi - There are around 2,000 physics PhDs awarded each year, of which 89 EVER (all years) have been awarded to black women. It is that bad.
posted by anthropophagous at 1:06 PM on September 18, 2015 [15 favorites]

Well, shit. Guess we'll need that revolution after all.
posted by Rangi at 1:14 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

"89 black women with a physics Ph.D." sounds shockingly low, but "5% of all physics Ph.Ds are black women" isn't that bad.


That's not the statistic-- it's not that 5% of PhDs in physics awarded every year go to black women, it's that the total number of PhDs awarded to black women ever equal 5% of the PhDs awarded this year.
posted by damayanti at 1:46 PM on September 18, 2015 [4 favorites]

Dr. Prescod-Weinstein was a regular at the cafe I worked at years ago. I can confirm beyond the shadow of a doubt, that she is exactly as cool as everybody thinks.
Congrats Doctor!
posted by TheCoug at 2:06 PM on September 18, 2015 [6 favorites]

This is just a terrific interview. It actually touches on a lot of themes that have been MeFi topics of discussion recently: emotional labor, queer and Black activism, women in STEM, work-life balance, academia -- in addition to her personal life story, and her thoughts on theoretical physics and why it is worth doing in a world that is filled with injustice (something I've been thinking about a lot with respect to my own field over the last several months).
posted by en forme de poire at 2:19 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

According to this article which she wrote for Gawker, her ex-wife is Chinese, but she's now married to a cis man. Both marriages faced strong disapproval from her in-laws.

She was also the recipient of a fabulous rainbow cake.
posted by thetortoise at 2:53 PM on September 18, 2015 [4 favorites]

What an absolutely incredible woman! I'm in awe. She sounds like tons of fun, too. Thanks for posting.
posted by missmary6 at 4:36 PM on September 18, 2015

Why is there no wikipedia article about her?
posted by MrChowWow at 5:08 PM on September 18, 2015

89 EVER (all years) have been awarded to black women

I've known two; it's a strange thought that I, a non-physicist, could personally know more than two percent of the total just through happenstance.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:39 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

I WANT THAT CAKE
posted by numaner at 9:57 PM on September 18, 2015

MrChowWow I was JUST TODAY talking with someone about helping draft an English Wikipedia article about Chanda Prescod-Weinstein - please MeMail me if you would like to collaborate on this! I especially would welcome links or citations for more media coverage of her and her work -- especially if you have seen print work about her that is not available online.
posted by brainwane at 1:18 PM on September 20, 2015