Remembering Sheila Tobias

By Meg Urry

Dr. Meg Urry is the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics; she previously served as Chair of the Physics Department at Yale from 2007 to 2013 and in the Presidential line of the American Astronomical Society 2013-2017. Dr. Urry is also known for her efforts to increase the number of women and minorities in science, for which she won the 2015 Edward A. Bouchet Leadership Award from Yale University and the 2010 Women in Space Science Award from the Adler Planetarium. She served on the CSWA from 1994 - 2003.

Sheila Tobias speaks at West Virginia University.
Credit: Julie Black, Teaching and Learning Commons, WVU

I was shocked to learn that Sheila Tobias died a year ago (NY Times obituary). She was a noted feminist with particular ties to, and affection for, the physical sciences. She wrote influential books on why so few women studied physics and math, including They’re Not Dumb, They’re Different and Overcoming Math Anxiety. She was married to a physicist, Carl Tomizuka and would sometimes attend meetings of the American Physical Society (APS). 

Most importantly for astronomers, she was a featured speaker at the 1992 Women in Astronomy meeting, at the Space Telescope Science Institute, in Baltimore, Maryland. I still remember sitting at the front of the lecture hall, listening to Sheila teach Feminism 101 in one riveting hour. I was simultaneously exhilarated (what clarity! the professoriate began in monasteries! the tropes of celibacy and singular focus and the sense of a “calling” are with us still) and terrified that the men in the room would be turned off by this challenge to their supposed meritocracy. But when the talk ended and I turned around, I saw only excited, smiling people. Riccardo Giacconi and other STScI leaders later raved about her lecture. She was able to deliver tough medicine in a way people responded well to, and she had a huge impact that day.

After the meeting, she wrote the first draft of the Baltimore Charter, based on notes from the breakout sessions. It was she who introduced the metaphor of great civilizations (innovations) arising at the juncture of trade routes (where differing ideas could connect). I think of that metaphor often, and indeed, there is considerable research today about innovation arising from difference. She had such a wide-ranging mind and piercing intellect that she broadened the way others think.

I learned so much from Sheila. Once, at an APS meeting somewhere, we were having a drink after dinner, and I guess I complained about how hard it was to be a woman in the overwhelmingly male world of physics. Didn’t she think that was a terrible disadvantage for women? “Oh no,” she answered immediately, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She explained that by virtue of being outsiders, women had occasion to understand themselves and their relation to others, and that this was something men, swimming in a pool of other similar men, didn’t often think to do. She said that she would never trade the self-awareness earned by outsiders for the complacency of the majority class. I’ve thought often about that sentiment, and it has buoyed me on many occasions. 

I did not know Sheila was unwell. When I saw her a few years ago, she was in wonderful health. And then COVID cut many of us off from one another, and I guess she succumbed to the downstream consequences of a fall. It’s great the New York Times recognized her contributions. With this post, I wanted to make sure that astronomers, in particular, remember how much she did for us.

Read more about Sheila Tobias and her work:

Sheila Tobias on her nonscience path to becoming a science activist, Physics Today