The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.
Below is our interview with Dr. Isabel Hawkins, an astronomer who directs projects and creates materials for the renowned Exploratorium and Smithsonian museums. She was awarded the Klumpke-Roberts Award by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2009 for her contributions to "public understanding of astronomy." Dr. Hawkins is also a world expert on Maya astronomy and indigenous astronomy. Examples of her work include websites on Maya astronomy and the Maya calendar (http://maya.nmai.si.edu and Calendar in the Sky). She also created the show Maya Skies at Chabot Space and Science Center last year, and also this site on Polynesian/Hawaiian astronomy:
Aparna Venkatesan (Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of San Francisco) comments that "Isabel gives wonderful guest lectures with a Maya elder, and she visited a class I taught last year on ancient and indigenous astronomy. In addition to an unforgettable class on the role of corn harvest cycles in Maya society and calendaring, she brought along a stove with corn masa and cheese and made all my students fresh corn quesadillas which were better than anything out of a restaurant."
For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. New Career Profiles are posted approximately every month.
