M. Chantale Damas

born:

place:

Pre-doctorate education:

Doctorate:

Area: Asteroids, Comets, Meteors; Stellar Evolution; Normal
Galaxies; Astronomy Education

current employment. Department of Physical, Enviromental and Computer
Sciences, Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn

URL:
email: mdamas305@aol.com

Captivated by stars from a very early age, she recalls she was 11 when she first came to the U.S. from Haiti and learned about Albert Einstein in school. "It was love at first sight," she declares. "Maybe it was the hair, but I was totally mesmerized by what he did. I wanted to be just like that."

As an adult, that passion for astronomy and physics has translated into a desire to teach others about the mysteries of science. In 1993 she completed her dissertation in space plasma physics at the University of California at San Diego. With the help of grants from the National Science Foundation and the Space Telescope Science Institute, she has designed an undergraduate physics course at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus that makes the subject more accessible to non-science majors and has started an astronomy workshop for elementary school teachers so they can impart that knowledge in a meaningful way to schoolchildren.

references: Fikes: From Banneker to Best: Some Stellar Careers In Astronomy and Astrophysics;

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