The former chief scientist at NASA now to inspire a new generation of women in STEM #STEM #WomenInSTEM #Science #Education
Via NBC: Ellen Stofan still feels a sense of awe when she walks through the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the first woman director of the museum.
“Whenever I look at things that have actually been in space, it never fails to give me goosebumps,” she said in recent interview with Karlie Kloss for NBC’s “Today” show.
Stofan’s father was a NASA rocket scientist, and she served as the space agency’s chief scientist before being named museum director.
“People have said to me, ‘it’s important that you’re the first woman director,’ and I want to say, ‘no, of course not. Women are completely capable of doing anything,” Stofan told Kloss. “But it is important, because I want to inspire that girl that comes into this museum to say ‘I could run the Air and Space Museum — but even more, I could be the first girl to walk on Mars.’”
From 2013 to 2016, she served as NASA’s chief scientist, helping to hone the agency’s plans for launching humans to Mars and steering NASA’s broad portfolio of science programs, which cover everything from astrophysics to Earth science.
“I look at this wall of women and say, these women laid a path for us,” Stofan said, “and all of us are just carrying on what they started.”