Meet Your CSWA: Karly Pitman

This is the seminal feature for our series highlighting the newest members of the American Astronomical Society's Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. For today's post, meet Dr. Karly Pitman, the executive director and senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Pitman earned her A.B. in Astronomy and Geology from Vassar College and completed her PhD at Louisiana State University. She's worked on a wide range of projects in space science from examining spectra of the martian surface to analyzing the composition interstellar dust. 

Dr. Karly Pitman is an accomplished planetary scientist and astrophysicist specializing in radiative transfer modeling and spectroscopy at the Space Science Institute.

Image Description: A person wearing a teal blazer and glasses sitting at a desk behind a laptop, smiling at the camera.

Describe the first time you made a personal connection with the planets and stars.

I’ve always liked looking at the night sky and playing with rocks and minerals. Because my parents were in college and my father worked nights for most of my childhood, we engaged in cheap forms of late-night entertainment, such as low-tech stargazing. As a kid, I could never sleep before midnight (still can’t), so I’d just stay up at night thinking or staring out my window, and this evolved into thinking too hard about what I was staring at.

How did you end up working in the field?

My parents say that I announced my intent to become a scientist to them in kindergarten, but I had seriously been considering it for a couple of years beforehand and settled on astronomy and geology when I was eight years old. My first exposure to physics proper was when I shadowed a physics professor in junior high school during career day. I had heard of and read about planetary science but didn’t get direct exposure to that until college and graduate school.

I went to a liberal arts 4-year college that had a strong science program where I could turbo load on the subjects above and carry a double major and went directly into a Ph.D. physics and astronomy program at a larger university from there. I did two postdocs: a regular postdoctoral research associateship at a university and a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellowship at JPL. Then the Great Recession hit and jobs were scarce for people my age. Many of us became independent contractors, consultants, and soft money researchers during that period, and I’ve worked in that sector for a little over a decade.

Who inspired you?

A great many people have helped me along the way (ref: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/2041/karly-pitman/). I’m currently inspired by the people in our field who make it a priority to help others in addition to doing good scientific work.

What is an Executive Director/Senior Research Scientist?

It is a combo CEO and principal investigator position. As executive director, I am the head of my institution and my duties include leading, developing, and implementing strategic, organizational, programmatic, and financial plans. I have oversight of both the programmatic research and education branches as well as the operations and finance teams (business, IT, human resources, legal) and overarching management of approximately 100 people. As a Senior Research Scientist, I submit proposals, lead my own projects, write papers, etc., the same as any researcher.

What community issues are important to you and why?

The topics most important to me involve professional development, demographics, and workforce planning. We are currently in a period of massive change as our community is issuing new strategy and policy documents related to workforce. Neither the “wish list” recommendations from affinity groups nor the requirements coming down from on high have sufficient dollar amounts or budgets attached to them, and we need that to practically realize the workforce goals outlined for our profession.

Tell us about a favorite moment so far in your career.

The first time I won a grant made me very happy. Because your peers vote on whether you win or lose, it’s a major honor and acknowledgment that your work is important to the community. Since science funding is limited, the odds are very small that you’ll win, so it’s also a relief to know that you’ll be gainfully employed.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to take the same career path as you?

I always issue the caveat that advice is an opinion born of someone’s own experiences and hopes or fears for you. Take what advice is useful to you and leave the rest.

There was a Fortune article (https://fortune.com/2021/11/17/women-ceos-girls-stem-education-shelly-hod-moyal-iangels/) explaining the difference between traditional STEM and another kind of STEM (Sales, Theater, Entrepreneurship, and Management). Whether you’re working as a scientist or in an executive management role, you have to master the latter set of skills too.

What do you do for fun?

My hobbies include sewing, photography, dessert production and consumption, singing, reading literature, and studying dead languages. I have aspirational interest in ballet, fencing, and armored combat. Practically speaking, I watch a lot of T.V. and movies.

What are your goals as a part of the CSWA?

I joined the CSWA to work on its strategic plan initiatives related to professional development, including working on developing a compensation database and improving equitable opportunities for employment and promotion. This is something I’m already doing as part of my job and something that will be very important for the community to have. I would also like to work toward implementing more accessibility and safety measures for women traveling to and attending conferences.

If you weren’t in the field of astronomy, what would you be doing?

I would be curled in the fetal position. In an alternate universe, I would be pursuing a career in something equally as creative and unstable.

What changes would you like to see for women in astronomy?

An exercise that’s done at women in planetary science meetings is asking women who have done XYZ to stand up, where XYZ = leading a mission, winning a grant, leading a team, etc. I would like to see more women in the room standing.